After Ralph Merletto had surgery at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center to have stents inserted into his heart, his doctor assigned him to LifeSpan, a 13-week rehabilitation/exercise program that would allow him to rebuild his cardiac strength while being monitored by nurses and exercise physiologists.
Years later, after his wife Marian had open heart surgery at Meadowlands, she, too, was assigned to LifeSpan’s exercise regimen.
Since then, the Merlettos have continued to visit the hospital regularly to workout through LifeSpan’s maintenance program. Or at least, they continued to go until March 20 – when LibertyHealth, the company that owns Meadowlands Hospital, had to discontinue LifeSpan to cut costs and save money.
However, beginning June 1, a replacement program will run at the new Secaucus Recreation Center on Koelle Blvd. Under a joint agreement between the Town of Secaucus and LibertyHealth, former patients who were accustomed to exercising at the hospital through LifeSpan will be able to continue their workouts at the Recreation Center. An on-duty nurse from Liberty will be available during designated hours for former LifeSpan participants.
For now, the program will be given a trial run at the Recreation Center, but it may become a permanent program if there’s enough interest.
Losing patients, losing money
Despite LifeSpan’s popularity among a handful of committed participants, fewer patients were being fed into the program and it was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Last year LifeSpan lost $300,000, according to Secaucus mayor Dennis Elwell and participants in the program.
“We simply didn’t have enough patients to support it, and insurance doesn’t pay that much for cardiac rehabilitation programs like this,” said Martin Baicker, senior VP and administrator for Meadowlands Hospital.
At any given time, he estimates that LifeSpan had 30 to 50 people in it.
“It had been losing money for years,” he said. “We carried it when we could afford to do so and kept it going at a loss for several years. But given the downturn in the economy we had to balance our budget and close the program.”
It’s unclear how long LifeSpan operated at Meadowlands Hospital, but Baicker estimated that it existed for at least 15 years.
The resurrection
Town officials learned in February that LifeSpan would be phased out by spring.
“The mayor and others were concerned,” Baicker said. “So we had some conversations with them about what we could do to somehow continue it.”
Mayor Dennis Elwell added, “I was approached by Liberty Health to see if we could run some kind of joint program to continue LifeSpan at the rec center. Probably around the same time, Councilman John Bueckner raised the matter in a [Town Council] caucus meeting. He had participated in LifeSpan and thought it was something worthwhile, something we should be involved in.”
Under a LifeSpan Maintenance pilot that will begin June 1, people will be able to exercise at the recreation center three days a week from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. A nurse from the hospital will be on duty to check heart rates and blood pressure. The program will operate Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during the pilot, which will run through the end of the year.
Most of the costs associated with the pilot – primarily the cost of the nurse – will be picked up by the hospital.
LibertyHealth and the town will later assess whether to continue the program on a permanent basis.
One of the issues that may need to be hashed out is whether fees will be charged, and if so, what those fees might be.
Also, since Meadowlands Hospital serves patients throughout northern New Jersey, there were people enrolled in LifeSpan when it closed in March who are not residents of Secaucus. And the town Recreation Center is only open to residents. Town officials and LibertyHealth may need to resolve what to do with nonresidents who want to use the program.
Elwell said the council has discussed the matter in closed caucus, but added that no final decision has been reached.
The Merlettos hope the program becomes a permanent feature at the rec center.
“The exercise was important,” Marian Merletto said. “But it wasn’t just about the exercise. It was also a social gathering because you get to know people and they become your friends. That was a nice aspect of it, too.”
Her husband added, “I’d hate to see it started just to have it stopped again.”
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.