HOBOKEN AND JERSEY CITY – Christ Hospital of Jersey City, before they were in the process of being sold to Prime Healthcare in California, submitted a bid to purchase Hoboken University Medical Center in September 2010, according to documents provided to the Reporter.
The Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority (HMHA), a city board that is selling the hospital to a group that co-owns Bayonne Medical Center, said they received eight total bids, of which six were qualified. It is unknown if Christ’s bid was among the six qualified bidders.
Under Christ Hospital’s proposal, the acute care services would have been eliminated at HUMC. This was contrary to one goal of the sale, which was that the hospital remain an acute care facility.
Other than that, the Christ Hospital proposal recommended a similar approach as Jersey City Medical Center’s bid, attempting to combine services, as recommended in the state Navigant Report on hospital consolidation in Hudson County.
The city’s bond debt would have been eliminated, according to the documents. Officials from Christ Hospital believed they received a strong response to their bid from state officials, according to the documents, but were ultimately not selected.
The actual bids are subject to non-disclosure agreements, but over the past few weeks, three bidders have gone public with their proposals, waiving the agreement.
Christ Hospital officials have neither released their bid nor gone public.
To read about the other bids to buy HUMC and what they had to offer, check out our cover story from Sunday by clicking HERE.
Parties involved in the bankruptcy settlement of the hospital’s operator were due back in court on Tuesday afternoon. Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who is a member of the HMHA, has said that the hospital’s debts must be settled before the sale can be completed. — Ray Smith