If public support was all it took to save the 100-bed Greenville Hospital in southern Jersey City, then the facility would have a bright future.
Unfortunately, it also needs money, and a change in objective from the company that owns it.
Over 350 people packed a public hearing at New Jersey City University Thursday night, three days after more than 100 attended a “town hall” meeting at the Mary McLeod Bethune Center on Martin Luther King Drive to talk about the hospital’s future.
Monday’s meeting was part informational session, part pep talk to make people aware of the upcoming Thursday meeting (which many claim was under-publicized). Thursday’s hearing was for the commissioners of the NJ Health Planning Board to gather public input on LibertyHealth’s application to the state to close the hospital.
LibertyHealth Systems, the health care organization that operates the hospital, filed in June with the state for “a certificate of need” to eventually close Greenville as a regular hospital, claming they have lost $3 million in recent years.
In April, the company said they would like to close the hospital’s emergency room in 12 to 18 months. The health organization has discussed ending all regular care in six to nine months.
Since then, a number of public officials, including City Councilwoman Viola Richardson, State Sen.-elect Sandra Cunningham, and Kabili Tayari, head of the Jersey City branch of the NAACP, have scheduled meetings with LibertyHealth officials and have worked with the community to fight the closing.
There had been a rally in front of the hospital on June 30, in which over 200 people gathered.The public sounds off
The public hearing at NJCU was packed, which is what supporters of Greenville Hospital hoped for.
At one point, the large number of people prompted a NJCU fire marshal to ask attendees to relocate from the hearing’s Hepburn Hall location to a cafeteria on the other side of the campus, which they did.
Three members of the NJ Health Planning Board listened to about two hours of public comments from about 30 speakers, made up of local, state, and federal officials and local residents.
Mayor Jerramiah Healy opened up the comment session and spoke beyond the three-minute limit for public speakers.
“I don’t think you will hear from anyone who wants this hospital to close,” Healy said.
Healy went on to say the hospital serves upwards of 125,000 people, encompassing three of the city’s wards “This city deserves the care this hospital provides; it needs it,” Healy said.
Richardson, who received some of the loudest applause at the hearing, said, “We can’t figure out what is the emergency to shut down Greenville Hospital.”
She also pointed out that the hospital would need to stay open to tend to future patients as a result of development of the city’s west side. Why we need it
U.S. Congressman Albio Sires said small, community hospitals such as Greenville have to exist rather than having centralized “megahospitals,” which will create a burden for those having to travel for immediate care, especially in Hudson County.
“Have you tried getting through this county?” Sires said, “God forbid I had a heart attack or somebody had a heart attack getting through this county.”
City Councilman Michael Sottolano, who represents the Greenville area of the city, called for the state to hold off for one year before making a decision to close the hospital.
Two of the hospital’s doctors, Dr. Michael Wagner and Dr. Mazzar El-Amir, refuted LibertyHealth’s claims of a $3 million deficit. They said that based on their research, they found the deficit to be about half that amount.
And then there were the patients who will be most affected by closing of Greenville Hospital. The patients
Maureen Maher, who has had two open-heart surgeries, gave the most dramatic presentation. She laid out in front of the commissioners the eight different medications prescribed to her through her doctor at Greenville Hospital.
“They are not closing that hospital; they are not taking away my life,” said Maher after the hearing, with her 6-year-old daughter Paige standing beside her. Other uses for hospital
Hudson County Freeholders Jeff Dublin and Bill O’Dea proposed at Monday’s meeting and Thursday’s hearing that Greenville Hospital be utilized to provide health services for military veterans in Hudson County who currently have to travel to Lyons Hospital in East Orange to receive care.
Sires said that he would work on a federal level to secure funding to open a veterans care facility at Greenville.
There were also suggestions of treating very ill Hudson County prisoners in a tightly regulated “lockdown unit.”
LibertyHealth has ideas for alternative uses itself. It would like to offer in-patient behavioral and addiction services, detoxification programs, and outpatient dialysis. The company has gone to the state for $10 million to make the necessary renovations to provide those services, but was turned down.
Their idea has also met with opposition from the community, claiming their suggested services would be a detriment to an area where there’s a school, a library and residential housing. LibertyHealth responds
Stephen Kirby, LibertyHealth’s president and CEO, attended the hearing, along with other LibertyHealth officials. He did not speak, but submitted written comments to the board before the hearing.
“This is one of the hardest things the executives and board members of LibertyHealth have ever done,” he said. “Nobody wants to close a hospital, and Greenville Hospital has served the community for more than 100 years. We share the community’s sadness over the necessary closing of Greenville Hospital.”
Kirby said after the hearing that he had met with Mayor Healy, Richardson, and other officials to hear their proposals, but he said the hospital would incur too many expenses by having a lockdown unit and care for veterans.
The NJ Health Planning Board will convene again Nov. 1 in Trenton, when more public comments on the closing will accepted.
Judith Donlen, chairperson for the board, explained Thursday that after all public comments, they will make their recommendations to state Health Commissioner Fred Jacobs, who can then rule that the hospital stay open with conditions or can approve the closing. For comments on the story, contact Ricardo Kaulessar at hudsonreporter.com