The area’s basic headlines 24 hours after the meeting read, ‘Hackensack University Medical Center, another step closer to reopening a community hospital.’ The State Health Planning Board (SHPB) voted 5-1 at the Nov. 29 meeting, recommending Commissioner Mary O’Dowd approve HUMC’s Certificate of Need (CN) application, in combination with the DOH staff report’s 13 recommendations. TO READ MORE, click here
December 12, 2011
November 15, 2011
The Final Step
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
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
June 22, 2011
Is Healthcare Need Individual or Business?
To the average person ‘need’ refers to a condition or situation requiring some thing or relief in order to meet a specific necessity. Valley Hospital and Englewood Hospital Medical Center’s recent repetitious ads suggest that the healthcare needs of Pascack and Northern Valley residents should be an insurance policy—to their financial needs. Maybe if Pascack Valley Hospital’s misguided expansion had the insurance of a market area with default needs—to drive patient revenue; we wouldn’t be having this discussion. 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
