The Record
Saturday, June 20, 2009
BY LINDY WASHBURN

In the latest challenge to Hackensack University Medical Center’s bid to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, two Bergen County hospitals have demanded that the state health commissioner dismiss the application on legal grounds.

“The application fails to meet many significant and irrefutable requirements for the submission of a Certificate of Need application,” reads the 14-page letter, with voluminous attachments, from attorney Frank R. Ciesla to Health Commissioner Heather Howard. Ciesla wrote on behalf of The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

“These requirements cannot be waived,” he wrote, “and we request that the application be dismissed at this time.”

Hackensack wants to reopen the hospital — which closed in November 2007 — as a 128-bed community hospital operated by a joint venture with Legacy Hospital Partners Inc. of Texas, a for-profit company.

A public hearing on the certificate of need application was held this month. The state Health Planning Board is to consider the application and recommend a decision to the health commissioner, who will then have 120 days to act.

Ciesla argued that “the State Health Planning Board’s review cannot continue at this time,” because it would violate state regulatory standards.

Read the complete article at northjersey.com