On Nov. 29 the State’s Health Planning Board will hold its 2nd and final meeting at 9:30 AM in the East Windsor at the Holiday Inn National Conference Center, located at 399 Monmouth St. Final comments will be heard as to whether or not a new 128-bed hospital should reopen at the Pascack Valley Hospital (PVH) site in Westwood. TO READ MORE, click here
November 15, 2011
October 16, 2011
Certificate of Need, Public Hearing – Oct. 19th
The Department of Health Planning Board will hold a public hearing Wednesday, October 19th in the auditorium at Westwood Regional High School in Washington Township. Its purpose will be to hear testimony from the public as to whether a hospital of any sort is needed in Westwood. It’s a procedural activity in the Certificate of Need (CN) process. It IS NOT an assurance of any affirmative decision. TO READ MORE, click here
May 25, 2011
New CN Call: Prima Facie or Ultra Vires
Is the foreplay over? HUMC withdrew its legal challenge over the Permit Extension Act (PEA) and its’ application to the expired PVH license. Valley and Englewood Hospital had their appellate motions, to void the DOH’s new ‘Certificate of Need’ (CN) call for a new Westwood hospital, denied. — Now what? TO READ MORE, click here
April 11, 2011
Moving Forward
The end run has been set. Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC) received notification from the DOH that its request for a certificate of need call, for a “new” general acute care hospital, has been accepted. (Click HERE to read article.) The process will run concurrently while HUMC’s lawsuit challenges the DOH’s other decision in which Pascack Valley Hospital’s (PVH) license was declared dead December 2009. It’s an irony spawned by politics and legal maneuvers while the Rome of public need burns.
TO READ MORE, click here
June 15, 2009
June 8th Meeting — Passionate On Need
Last Monday evening’s public meeting on the status of PVH’s CN transfer approval, was another step in State process for reopening a hospital in Westwood. It was well attended by supporters with a minority showing of bused in opposition. TO READ MORE, click here
May 22, 2009
Beginning of the End: Hearing Date Set
A public announcement in the Record provides info on hearing. TO READ MORE, click here
May 21, 2009
Beginning of the End: Part Deux
The Record’s reporter, Lindy Washburn, reported the result of the Bankruptcy Court’s decision. TO READ MORE, click here
May 20, 2009
Beginning of the End
26:2H-1. Declaration of public policy
1. It is hereby declared to be the public policy of the State that hospital and related health care services of the highest quality, of demonstrated need, efficiently provided and properly utilized at a reasonable cost are of vital concern to the public health. In order to provide for the protection and promotion of the health of the inhabitants of the State, the State Department of Health shall have the central responsibility for the development and administration of the State’s policy with respect to health planning, hospital and related health care services and health care facility cost containment programs, and all public and private institutions, whether State, county, municipal, incorporated or not incorporated, serving principally as residential health care facilities, nursing or maternity homes or as facilities for the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of human disease, pain, injury, deformity or physical condition, shall be subject to the provisions of this act. – The State’s statute directing the DOH’s authority. The DOH appears to have begun to assert that authority, concerning Pascack Valley Hospital’s operating license, (Click HERE to Read article) deeming the HUMC/Legacy application for its transfer complete. TO READ MORE, click here
April 13, 2009
Pass Go, Collect 200 Patients
The Valley and Englewood Hospitals continue to press their efforts to gain and hold market share since Pascack’s closing. They shift back and forth between defense and offense in their Monopoly game with Hackensack. Manipulating the end use of the prized Westwood ‘Park Place’ property is at stake. TO READ MORE, click here
April 1, 2009
The Opposition Sees Green
The Valley and Englewood Hospitals, acting like bankrupt millionaires, have become town criers, feigning concern from a financial flu. The virus, HUMC’s proposed new for-profit hospital in Westwood. TO READ MORE, click here
March 10, 2009
Hospital Auction Do Over?
“After the rancor and fierce debate of the past few months over the re-opening of a full-service hospital in Westwood, both sides are awaiting a decision over whether the license of the former Pascack Valley Hospital (PVH) can be sold. … Megan Fraser, the director of marketing and communications at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, points specifically to the auctioning of the MICU license as a valid precedent for the current court debate.” (Community Life 03-03-09)
“The opponents of a proposal to reopen the former Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood have asked a Bankruptcy Court judge to throw out the hospital’s sale to Hackensack University Medical Center and hold a new auction.” (Record 03-06-09) Valley and Englewood want a do over. You just can’t make this stuff up. TO READ MORE, click here
February 24, 2009
Code Blue
Valley and Englewood began their opposition to HUMC North, Hackensack and Legacy’s new proposed hospital, by questioning the integrity of care offered by its for-profit corporate structure. And like a Cosa Nostra looking over its province, seeking to protect its business’s monopoly in an interfamily feud, they fired a short-barreled shotgun — of fear and rhetoric. They highlight justifications with concerns of their own financial stability and the well-being of Pascack Valley Hospital’s (PVH) creditors, offering the possibility of generous compensation for the killing of the PVH hospital license. TO READ MORE, click here
