After about 50 community leaders gathered on the lawn of Bayonne Medical Center in the afternoon on Aug. 16 to express their concerns about changes that include laying off more than 100 employees and the closing down of various departments. Hundreds of workers and concerned citizens also took their protest to the city council chambers, asking the city to investigate.
Seeking to have the state impose an impartial monitor over the changes proposed by Bayonne Medical Center, a group of concerned citizens has formed the Coalition to Save Bayonne Hospital and launched a petition drive to keep the hospital from closing services.
“To date, our members include community leaders, physicians, nurses, healthcare workers, patients, respected members of the clergy and trusted elected officials and we are growing,” said former councilwoman Mary Jane Desmond, who spoke both at the afternoon press conference and at evening public session of the city council. “Our primary mission is to preserve…and where possible, to regain access to the quality healthcare services that Bayonne and its surrounding communities have long depended on from Bayonne Medical Center.”
BMC announced earlier this month that it would close its OB unit and would send expectant mothers to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Staten Island instead.
Statements from the administration of BMC have been inconsistent in regards to the number of the babies born at the hospital, citing figures between 120 to 150 births per year.
Dr. John DeDousis, president of BMC staff braved the jeers of the crowd at the council meeting, claimed the closing may only be temporary until the situation improved, citing the loss of numerous doctors who have handled births in the past. Administrators at BMC said the OB costs the hospital about $3 million a year to keep open.
But Dr. Barry Elkind and Dr. Devarajan Iyengar who works at the hospital said the hospital administration allegedly allowed conditions to deteriorate in the OB department forcing doctors to leave or retire.
“Several those doctors are still delivering babies,” Elkind said. “They’re just not doing it at Bayonne Medical Center.”
Angelica Torres, in speaking in the afternoon session, told the crowd that she had delivered at St. Vincent’s Hospital on Aug. 8 after being turned away at BMC.
During the evening council session, Angela Lorenz said she had suffered a miscarriage on July 30, requiring the services of the OB Department of BMC. She was also told she was going to be transported to Staten Island.
“Fortunately, I was not,” she said. “I can’t imagine what might have happened if I had.”
Seeking an investigation
Desmond, who is among the leaders of the new coalition, has asked that the state investigate BMC’s intended purchase of St. Vincent’s Hospital to determine if this is the reason for the cut backs in Bayonne.
“In recent weeks, Bayonne Medical Center made a series of fiscally driven draconian cuts in services and staff at both our Medical Center and Family Health Center,” Desmond said. “Specifically, Hospital Administrators and Board of Trustees chose to close all Obstetrics services and to cut outpatient services such as orthopedic services and physical, occupational and respiratory services. This all occurred at the same time that administrators and trustees planned their purchase of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Staten Island.”
While representatives from BMC have routinely claimed the closings have nothing to do with the purchase of St. Vincent’s Hospital, Desmond said BMC has applied for $90 million in revenue bonds for re-financing and expenses related to OR and outpatient surgery re-construction and equipment.
“That’s not all, they need to borrow approximately $130 million to finance the upgrades and renovations needed immediately at St. Vincent’s,” Desmond said. “That’s 220 million dollars.”
“We’d like to know what other Bayonne services may be sacrificed in order to effectuate the purchase of St. Vincent’s Staten Island,” Desmond said. “Which patients are likely to be re-directed over state lines?”
Hospital hopes to regain money through new programs
DeDousis said BMC hoped to recoup lost revenue through innovated new upgrades that include some programs already implements such as the new cardiac services as well as establishing of a new nursing home facility due to break ground next March.
But the coalition members said the hospital appears to be neglecting its basic responsibilities in order to expand.
“The Board of Bayonne Medical Center is entrusted with overseeing the operations and finances of the hospital and to ensure that the healthcare needs of the community are being met and delivered in a safe and efficient manner,” Desmond said. “How can we be confident that they are meeting their fiduciary responsibilities when pregnant women are being turned away from their community facility and re-routed by taxi to an out of state facility?”
Desmond said BMC appears not to have met the letter of the law when closing down the OB department, saying that women were being sent away well before the 60-day grace period that is required by the state.
“We know that the Bayonne Women’s Health and Family Planning Center became aware of these changes only as they were being inundated with calls from displaced patients asking for assistance,” she said, noting that the director of the center had gone to Trenton to meet with state health officials because the center cannot duplicate the services the hospital provided.
State may step in
The coalition has written to Gov. Jon Corzine, the New Jersey Attorney General and the NJ Commissioner of Health asking for them to halt “elimination and reduction of vital health care services,” to appoint a monitor to oversee the operations of Bayonne Medical Center “to assure fiscal accountability and the continuation of safe and effective health care services,” to ensure that “a proper health needs assessment be conducted”
“So that we may be confident that our community’s needs are adequately met as reflected by the services provided at Bayonne Medical Center,” Desmond said. “We have also sent a written request to the Office of Attorney General in New York, first asking that an investigation be conducted of the corporate practices and finances of each of the entities and their affiliates involved in the acquisition and future operation of St. Vincent’s Staten Island, including Bayonne Medical Center, and, to enjoin the New York State entities and their affiliates from proceeding with the acquisition until the investigation can be completed and the public assured that the assets of St. Vincent’s Staten Island and conversely the assets Bayonne Medical Center be well protected and used solely in the fulfillment of their respective hospital’s mission.”
Mayor Joseph Doria, Council President Vincent Lo Re, and council members Anthony Chiappone, Ted Connolly and Gary LaPelusa joined the afternoon conference in support of the coalition’s actions, also voicing their support later at the council meeting.
Doria said he had already spoken with Dr. Fred Jacobs, the Commissioner of the NJ Department of Health.
“The commissioner promised me he would be doing a site visit to Bayonne Medical Center,” Doria said.
Keep off the grass?
The BMC made few friends neither at either press conference nor at the public session later when staff members alienated some of the protestors. At the afternoon press conference, BMC security told protestors – including some public officials to keep off the grass.
In evening session, DeDousis and his staff while exiting the council chambers seem to dismiss the protestors when during they loudly claimed, “These people talk a lot but do not have a lot to say.”
Hospital finances questioned
Public officials and private citizens raised sharp concerns about the finances of Bayonne Medical Center during the public comment period of the Aug. 16 meeting.
Bayonne Medical Center has announced the closing of its maternity ward and other services as well as the layoff 30 managerial staff and perhaps as many as 100 other employees.
Union officials and residents Bayonne asked public officials for specific information regarding the number of administrators, what they make and other details city officials did not know. Because of BMC’s not-for-profit status, many of the answers can be found in its required 990 federal tax form.
While such forms are usually a year behind the current year, BMC has not yet filed its report for 2005.
It’s 2004 form, however, answers many of the questions raised by those protesting BMC cut backs and layoffs. In 2004, BMC’s revenues were $132,307,592 including fees, contracts, grants, dividends of investments and rental income. Total expenses for the same year were $131,307,165.
Employee salaries excluding officers and directors were $59,800,038 with more than an additional $11 million to pension, other employee benefits and payroll taxes.
Topping the list of salaries for hospital administrators is Robert Evans, president and CEO, with $306,386 in salary and $85,980 in benefit plan contributions. Heather Aaron, vice president of finance receives a salary of $253,958; Susan Flynn, vice president of administration, $239,921; Caroline Fleishell, vice president of revenue, $216,081; Anne Murga, senior vice president of administration, $191,752; Joseph Herscu, house physician, $175,633; Stephanie Giblin, $174,308.
The top five professional service contracts to the hospital include Llindabury, McCormick & Estabrook at $234,590 for legal services, Shin Hon Lu, MC, at $155,246 for medical services; McCarter & English, at $118,160 for legal services; Witt, Kieffer, Ford, Hadekman, & Lloyd at $86,585 for recruitment services and Scarinci & Hollenbeck, at $81,120 for legal services.
Part of the income BMC received in 2004 was $303,921 for rental of properties.
The value of BMC land, buildings and equipment was placed at $127,568,023.