July 23rd, 9:30 AM, is the date and time for Bergen County hospitals’ version of a ‘Thriller in Manila.’ The fight card has the power punching of HUMC and Legacy vs. the opposition bolo punching skills of Valley and Englewood Hospital. The outcome for the contestants will determine the primary market rights to an arena of 100,000 plus patients and money. For the Pascack and Northern Valley audience, it will define accessible healthcare in geographic terms for trauma patients.
In a Record, June 26, article (Click HERE to read.) the final hearing date and place was noted. The opposition will step into the ring for the final round by standing before the State’s healthcare boxing commission, the Department of Health Planning Board. The Board members will pronounce whether an opposition TKO is in the future for HUMC North’s CN application. The possibility will remain for a later ‘walkout’ challenge bout that could eventually be played out in a courtroom.
Boxing, an analogy to each side’s 18 months of jabbing and deceptive footwork. Valley and Englewood hospital will once again repeat their narrative at the July hearing, intending to define what is in the best interests of ‘Bergen County’ healthcare. Their solution, keep the Pascack Valley Hospital (PVH) site closed so that 7 hospitals within 15 miles remain financially strong (2 of which are in N.Y.) Funny that their rambling concerns never seem to offer any clues toward a respect for the residents actually affected by their self-serving goals.
The physical connect of hospitals by road within 15 miles is geography. A point noted in a prior blog. It is speed restraints that provides a healthcare location relativity within the scope of time. You have to wonder, which would the opposition describe more important in a trauma crisis, the miles or speed to access a life saving surgical intervention?
Transportation infrastructure is generally recognized in urban planning as a prerequisite for defining geographic locations as close. There are no direct trains or buses running from Westwood to Valley or Englewood Hospitals. Moreover, proximity calculated by road distance may be fine for an evening out but for healthcare, it ignores the speed delaying obstacles of traffic congestion, weather, topography or unforeseen situations due to road maintenance or circumstance; dynamics that can play a major role in the time window of trauma care accessibility.
The last eighteen months has been nothing but a series of point, counter points and fancy legal footwork. Valley Hospital wants to secure its quarter billion dollar surplus, and build revenue support for its expansion. Englewood Hospital wants to expand its opportunities, albeit its benefits may be limited. And Hackensack and Legacy, while their efforts will fulfill the needs of the communities they would serve, they should be by no means assumed an altruistic inspiration. Each contestant has had a business driven motivation.
Hopefully, Westwood and the surrounding communities will triumph with the prior DOH CN extension decision being respected and reaffirmed. No one back then deemed it important enough to speak against it so the issues of concern now seem less then sincere. To ignore the prior conclusion would probably only undermine all future SHPB hearing results, reducing them to the perception of a placebo process for placating community emotions.
The Final Meeting: Thursday, July 23rd, 9:30 AM, @ the National Conference Center at the East Windsor Holiday Inn, 399 Monmouth St., East Windsor. To get directions click HERE.
Next blog, probably not until after the July meeting and vote. 
Really.
15 miles might as well be 100 miles when my grandfather had his heart attack. Driving to the hospital in the ambulance we slowed down for every intersection unless a police was there to waive us through. Can’t see the reasoning of the arguments against a hospital that’s no bigger then an outpost in an urban jungle.
Comment by Alastair — June 30, 2009 @ 10:25 AM