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Mayors stress need for hospital
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard & Karen F. Mrnarevic - January 23, 2008)
With less than two weeks to go before the remnants of the former
Pascack
Valley
Hospital are put up on the auction block, local governing bodies are making it clear that anything less than an acute care facility on the site will be unacceptable.
“We all are unanimous that we want to promote a full-care acute health facility,” Joe LaPaglia, Mayor of Woodcliff
Lake and President of the Pascack Valley Mayors Association (PVMA) said in a phone interview Tuesday.
To date, five
Pascack
Valley municipalities – Emerson, Hillsdale, River Vale, Westwood and
Woodcliff
Lake – have passed resolutions staunchly supporting the establishment of a hospital on the former PVH site at 250 Old Hook Road, which spans approximately 20 acres.
The aforementioned municipalities each passed template resolutions “requesting the assets of Pascack Valley Hospital Association, Inc. be sold to a purchaser who will provide health care services for the community.”
The resolutions state that a hospital is “vitally important to our community,” citing PVH’s report that in 2005 the hospital had 13,997 inpatient admissions, 5,584 operating room procedures, 10,720 same-day center patients, 1,025 births and 22,749 emergency room visits. PVH closed its doors on Nov. 21, 2007.
The resolutions go on to say, “The best interests of our community will be served if the hospital assets be returned to service promptly by a purchaser who will provide health care services (including at a minimum an emergency room with observation beds) for the community.”
The passed resolutions will be part of a packet, which will be presented to U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Rosemary Gambardella at the Feb. 4 bankruptcy hearing and auction in
Newark , in order to demonstrate the region’s need for an acute care facility.
As the hearing date approaches, several potential bidders have stepped forward to express interest in the former PVH site. At the Jan. 15 meeting of the Westwood Mayor and Council, Borough Engineer Stephen Boswell, who sits on the Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC) Board of Governors, told the mayor and council that there were two leading bidders among local hospitals. One is a cooperative effort by
Englewood and Valley hospitals, which proposes to keep a hospital on-site while adding retail space. The other is a joint venture by HUMC and
Touro
Medical
College , which proposes to keep it a hospital and add a medical school.
Additionally, the Pascack Valley Mayor’s Association (PVMA) heard a presentation by Paradigm Physician Partners at its Jan. 9 meeting. Paradigm, a consulting firm based in Fairfield, Conn., is also among the bidders competing for
Passaic
County ’s
Barnert
Hospital , which declared bankruptcy last August; the Barnert auction is scheduled for Jan. 28.
According to LaPaglia, Paradigm is a private equity group that would acquire the hospital and get it up and running through the backing of “strategic investors.” Paradigm would subsequently search for an “exit strategy,” which would entail reselling the hospital in the future. The group asked the PVMA to assess the level of interest among their respective councils in the prospect of the
Pascack
Valley municipalities eventually becoming the owners of the hospital. Paradigm plans to make a bid to buy the hospital regardless of the municipalities’ interest.
The bottom line, said River Vale Mayor and PVMA Vice President Joseph Blundo, is that the Pascack Valley “communities will do whatever it takes to keep the hospital open, and if that means considering an investment strategy… that is something we would do.” Blundo clarified by saying, “They [Paradigm] were not asking us to go in on the bid with them,” but rather putting the option before the PVMA as a possible exit strategy.
Blundo has not yet presented the option of a future investment to his council, as it has not met since the PVMA heard Paradigm’s presentation.
LaPaglia described Paradigm’s strategy to the
Woodcliff
Lake council on Jan. 21, and received mixed reactions. Some members of the council were eager to learn more about the idea of a municipally owned hospital, while Councilman Jeff Bader wholeheartedly denounced the idea. “I want to make myself clear,” said Bader, “I don’t think taxpayers have any interest in investing money in a hospital.”
Regardless of the risks of such a large investment on the part of the towns of the
Pascack
Valley , Blundo and LaPaglia say they are investigating the possibility. “Being part of the purchase might give us a better chance at keeping it a community hospital,” said Blundo.
Also at the Jan. 9 PVMA meeting, Senator Gerald Cardinale told the mayors that the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) had been discouraging interested bidders, specifically Urology Specialty Care, a consortium of 100 doctors who contributed $1,000 apiece to bid on the hospital.
“In effect,” explained LaPaglia, “when Gerry says ‘discouraging,’ [he means the DHS] is applying a law that prohibits doctors from buying hospitals. Doctors can’t own hospitals… because of a perceived, inherent conflict of interest.”
LaPaglia said that Urology Specialty and other private equity groups have tried to “relax the law” by asking for exceptions, none of which have been granted by DHS.
Nonetheless, Cardinale’s criticism of DHS prompted LaPaglia to draft a letter on behalf of the PVMA to Gov. Jon Corzine’s deputy chief of staff, Javier Inclan, asking for more information.
Additionally, the letter implored Inclan and Corzine to assist
Pascack
Valley in resurrecting a hospital. “We need your attention and help with this problem now,” wrote LaPaglia.
As of publication, the PVMA had not received a response from the governor’s office.
“The idea is to do everything we can to keep it an acute care hospital, or an emergency room at the very least,” said Blundo. “All of these letters, meetings, resolutions is to [achieve] that goal, to send that message to any part who has influence. We don’t care who owns it [the hospital] – the bottom line is it’s gotta be open.”
Megan Burrow contributed to this article.
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com.
| Comments (1) |
On January 24, 2008 era said:
where were all the mayors 1year ago when the hospital was getting in trouble? it's been the past maybe 4 mounths they started to do something a little too late.the hopspital has been in trouble for almost a year if not longer. when they started to lay off employes you knew there was a problem. the mayor of westwood was more interestd in having pvh pay their back taxes. |
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