JERSEY CITY AND BEYOND – The office of the state Attorney General and the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services will hold two public hearings on the proposed sale of Jersey City’s Christ Hospital to the owners of Bayonne Medical Center and Hoboken University Medical Center.
The hearings will take place on Wednesday, May 23 and Thursday, May 24 at Hudson County Community College. Both hearings will begin at 6 p.m.
Such hearings are required by state law before a hospital’s ownership can be transferred from one owner to another.
On March 27, a federal bankruptcy judge awarded the struggling Christ Hospital to Hudson Hospital Holdco, which beat out a rival bid from LibertyHealth System, the owner of Jersey City Medical Center.
The hospital filed for bankruptcy in February after a sale to a California-based company faced challenges from state regulators and fell through after the California buyer walked away from the deal.
Several state agencies, including the state Attorney General and the Department of Health and Senior Services, must still approve the sale of medical facility to Hudson Hospital Holdco.
The upcoming public hearings are a legally-required part of the approval process. If this sale is approved, Christ Hospital will be the fourth Hudson County nonprofit hospital to be sold to a for-profit company in recent years. Bayonne Medical Center, Hoboken University Medical Center, Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus are all operated by for-profit entities.
In a May 14 letter to the Department of Health and Senior Services the union that represents 400 nurses at Christ Hospital, Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), has requested that the agency strengthen or expand several commitments Hudson Hospital Holdco made in its Asset Purchase Agreement. Among the requests HPAE made in this letter are a commitment from the buyer to: 1) operate Christ Hospital as a full-service acute care hospital with all the clinical services and community health programs currently offered for at least 10 years; 2) maintain nurse-to-patient ratios sufficient to maintain patient safety and quality of care; 3) hire an independent monitor for health care access and charity care compliance; 4) provide care for patients, regardless of ability to pay or insurance coverage; 5) include community members, workers and local elected officials in implementing the Navigant report, which recommended that Hudson County hospitals collaborate and consolidate services; and 6) retain the current nursing staff, in addition to 90 percent of the remaining hospital workers, and provide all employees with health coverage equivalent to current coverage.
“We have learned from experience that our regulatory agencies must be vigilant in monitoring for-profit companies and their adherence to conditions that protect patient care, access to care, and safe working conditions and staffing levels,” Nicole Mankowski, a registered nurse at Christ Hospital and president of the local HPAE, said in a May 16 statement.
“While we support this sale, we also are aware of the real pressures that will be placed on patient care and services when one for-profit company controls three hospitals in Hudson County, a community with many uninsured families. Health care in Hudson County is at a critical point – and we should not be deciding what services will be offered or eliminated to our communities without a health needs assessment, and without the voices of the community, our elected officials and our health professionals.”
HPAE already has a tentative labor agreement with the hospital’s likely buyer. If the sale is approved by the state this labor agreement will be put up for a vote by HPAE members at Christ. – E. Assata Wright