HOBOKEN – In a letter from New Jersey Appleseed, a Newark based law center, to Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer and Council President Beth Mason, Appleseed’s Executive Director Renee Steinhagen is asking that the City Council “hold a public hearing prior to adopting an ordinance dissolving the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority and, approving the sale of the Hoboken University Medical Center.”
New Jersey Appleseed is “a nonprofit legal advocacy organization that represents the interests of the public upon the sale or merger of nonprofit hospitals pursuant to its Protection of Healthcare Assets and Service Project,” according to their letter.
The letter is also written on behalf of the Coalition for Quality Healthcare, a Hoboken-based community organization. According to CoalitionForQuality.org, the group “consists [of] concerned employees and members of the community as well as employees, unions, the HUMC Auxiliary, Charter, and other organizations all who are working together to preserve Hoboken University Medical Center as a full service acute care facility serving the needs of the community.”
The March 2 letter alleges that there are rumors in the community that indicate “certain members of the authority will be receiving ownership interests in or positions with the new owner; that the new owner will be flipping the hospital to a real estate entity for $90 million making an immediate profit; and that other respondents to the Request for Proposal were not permitted access to confidential information and thus were not invited to make a detailed, competitive bid for the hospital.”
Steinhagen states that by holding a public hearing, similar to those required by the state Attorney General for the sale of hospitals, the rumors could be put to rest.
The group said in their letter that they are “urging the City Council to hold a public hearing to determine…that ‘appropriate steps have been taken to safeguard the value of the [public] assets of the hospital and that any proceeds from the proposed acquisition are irrevocably dedicated for appropriate charitable health care purposes.”
In related news, the company that is in negotiations to buy the hospital from the city sent out a release implying that they don’t intend to “flip” the hospital, but are “continuing to explore additional sources of financing in order to advance HUMC’s goal of building a nursing home/assisted living facility, modernizing and expanding the maternity unit, and longer term capital needs.”
See links for related stories below and at www.hudsonreporter.com, including this past weekend’s cover story in the Hoboken Reporter. — Ray Smith
Newark based public interest group calls for public hearing on Hoboken hospital sale
