PVH Community Life — Letter to the Editor
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
BY NANCY RUSSO, Emerson

No one disputes the fact that the Pascack Valley community needs and deserves emergency room care in our own neighborhood.

No one disagrees with the great loss that was felt when Pascack Valley Hospital (PVH) closed. There is no doubt that Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC) is a quality facility and would provide excellent healthcare. But we need to ask ourselves what is behind the curtain that reads HUMC with $80 million of Legacy Hospital Partner’s money from Plano, TX.

We should be asking ourselves what happened to the medical school and their money. Why did they really pull out? What does a profit making company mean to a community hospital? Do they put the profits back into the facility like a not-for-profit does or do they take it for their investors? What happens if it doesn’t turn a profit? Where do the uninsured go? Have we really done our homework?

We all turned a blind eye to what happened to PVH. We all brought the bill of goods that PVG administration sold us that everything was great and that they could not afford. Are we going into something blind again? Do we let strangers come in without any concern to hat may happen to our neighborhood? Do we look at the area around HUMC to try to remember that the neighborhood has changed dramatically? They bought up many homes, businesses and apartment buildings to make up a medical center. Do we want that or do we want a community minded facility?

We should take a moment to look at who we are listening to, what they really represent and what are their motives before it is too late. We should learn from our past mistakes. After all, it is our neighborhood.