Hospitals debate re-opening of PVH as for-profit entity
PVH Community Life
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
BY MEGAN BURROW
As the Certificate of Need hearing for the re-opening of a full service, acute-care hospital at the former site of Pascack Valley Hospital (PVH) nears, Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and Englewood Hospital Medical Center (EHMC) are raising questions about whether the prospective new facility is in the best interest of not just the Pascack Valley, but the larger healthcare system of Northern New Jersey.
Valley and EHMC recently launched a Web site stating their concerns and have been circulating a petition opposing the hospital’s re-opening in anticipation of the hearing, expected sometime in late-November or December. HUMC and local municipalities have been circulating their own petitions, claiming the area’s need for a full-service hospital and garnering signatures from residents concerned about ready and available access to healthcare services. According to Westwood Mayor John Birkner, more than 14,500 residents had signed the petition as of 7 p.m. last night, Tuesday, Oct. 21.
When PVH filed for bankruptcy and eventually shut its doors in November of 2007, many residents of the Pascack Valley wondered what would become of the 20-acre site and waited anxiously for a hospital to re-open.
To the relief of many in the area, the property was ultimately sold for $45 million in a bankruptcy auction last February, in a joint bid of $45 million by HUMC and Touro University College of Medicine. Since the auction, HUMC has gained an investor, Legacy Hospital Partners, which plans on injecting millions of dollars of capital into the opening of the new facility – HUMC North at Pascack Valley – and has lost its original partner, Touro, which backed out of the agreement to share the facility, citing the need for a more spacious location for its rapidly growing institution.
Bob Garrett, executive vice president and chief operating officer of HUMC, said that in the 20 days since the emergency room at HUMC North has been open, the hospital has seen 576 patients and feedback from the patients, ambulance squads, and physicians “has been absolutely terrific.”
He said that while the hospital is still unsure of the final plans for the building that was to originally house Touro, it will probably be used for outpatient services such as cardiac rehabilitation and a sleep center that were at the former PVH.
Filling the gap
Since the closing of PVH, Valley and EHMC say they have welcomed physicians and nurses from the former hospital and have made efforts to meet all of the medical needs of the community it once served.
“Even a year before the hospital closed, we modified our application procedures to ease the hiring of staff from PVH, because it was clear to us that the hospital was not going to be able to survive,” stated Mike Pietrowicz, vice president of planning and program development at EHMC. In the months following the closure, Pietrowicz estimated EHMC accommodated 15 to 20 percent more patients and hired more than 250 physicians, nurses, and technicians, including many former employees of PVH. To successfully cope with the new influx of patients, EHMC also expanded operating room services, opened two additional nursing units, extended its Mobile Intensive Care Units, and worked with local volunteer ambulance corps to help manage issues that arose immediately after the closure of PVH.
Megan Fraser, director of marketing and communications at Valley Hospital said Valley incorporated similar efforts to ensure patients coming from Pascack Valley were well cared for. “After PVH closed we immediately reached out to the Pascack Valley physicians and put in place ways for them to admit their patients to our hospital,” she said. “It is important to understand that we have a long history of caring for patients from the Pascack Valley who choose to come to Valley and we feel privileged to care for that community.”
