Is anyone able to attend the Public Hearing for the opening of a new hospital in Westwood on Monday, June 8 at 4:30 to 8:30 pm at Westwood Regional Junior/Senior High School at 701 Ridgewood Rd. in Washington Township? Please email
prospectavenuecoalition@yahoo.com if you can attend.
http://www.keepourhospitalshealthy.org/view-comments-from-petition/The Issue
The foundation of northern New Jersey’s healthcare system is at risk.
Hackensack University Medical Center, in a joint venture with a Texas private equity firm, Legacy Hospital Partners, is seeking approval to open a for-profit acute care facility on the former Pascack Valley Hospital (PVH) site. PVH went bankrupt and closed in November 2007, due in large part to what a recent Governor-appointed NJ Commission identified as “an oversupply of hospital beds that is…most pronounced in the Hackensack, Ridgewood, Paterson and the Newark/Jersey City market areas.”
The closure of PVH produced increased occupancy rates and financial stability at the remaining Bergen County hospitals.
This for-profit joint venture could significantly damage the financial strength of the other Bergen County hospitals, thereby destabilizing the region’s access to healthcare and reversing the benefits that have been provided to local residents.
When an oversupply of hospital beds floods a market, services and equipment are duplicated, driving up costs. Existing hospitals, their employees and the communities they serve pay a very serious price. The public bears the costs while profits go to a few.
There should be a satellite Emergency Department at the former Pascack Valley site so that residents have access in emergency situations. But to add a new inpatient, acute-care hospital in a region that has an oversupply of beds would be detrimental to the fragile healthcare system in Bergen County. As result, access and quality of care would be affected.
Healthy hospitals for all of Bergen County – that’s the issue. Let’s keep the whole community in mind.