Hudson Regional Hospital vows to replicate its success story in Bayonne. Employees, officials say now is the time
Taken from NJ.com
By Teri West | The Jersey Journal
November 14, 2024
Hudson Regional Hospital vows to replicate its success story in Bayonne. Employees, officials say now is the time
Negotiations with vendors and insurers. New technology. Introducing a new surgical program.
Each of these are ways in which Hudson Regional Hospital says it turned the struggling Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus into the profitable, well attended hospital it is today. And each of these, the hospital leadership says, are ways that they plan to do the same for Bayonne Medical Center (BMC) if they are approved to purchase it for $13 million.
After years of lawsuits and false starts, Hudson Regional Hospital (HRH) is finally getting a shot at state approval to take over operations at BMC, one of three hospitals in the cash-strapped CarePoint Health System.
HRH’s certificate of need application being considered by the state Department of Health (DOH) lays out a 13-point plan for how it will do so successfully.
Under the agreement, HRH would be granted the option to purchase and jointly own the property under Christ Hospital in Jersey City with CarePoint and then redevelop it.
The 13-point vision is being embraced by municipal officials from both Bayonne and Secaucus as well as medical professionals and union representatives, all of whom spoke before DOH officials at a public hearing Wednesday.
Some called it an obvious solution for the hospital, where they had seen services and working conditions crumble over the past year as CarePoint began a slow descent toward bankruptcy.
They referenced HRH’s track record in Secaucus and its ownership of the Bayonne hospital’s land as reasons to have faith that a takeover of BMC would work.
Others maintained it’s the best way forward because there may not be any other way to keep the hospital running.
“Quite honestly, I don’t think there’s an alternative,” said Dr. Jeffrey Augustin, an orthopedic surgeon who says he had worked out of BMC, but had to move elsewhere because of CarePoint’s financial crisis.
Hospital staff and officials also packed the BMC cafeteria for the hearing with the State Health Planning Board. BMC’s new Chief Hospital Executive Dr. Mohammad Zubair urged the state to approve HRH’s plan.
“They have the money,” he said. “They own the land, so I think this would be the best step forward for our hospital, which is currently choking.”
Hospital purchases or mergers require state approval of Certificate of Need applications, and a public hearing is one step in the state’s decision-making process.
Earlier this month CarePoint filed for bankruptcy, and while it did not provide a final accounting of the network’s massive debt, documents revealed CarePoint owed its top 30 creditors nearly $108 million and there are approximately 7,500 more vendor and individual creditors.
The HRH-BMC plan is part of a merger proposal that would create a new, four-hospital healthcare system, Hudson Health System, that would include Insight, of Michigan, operating Christ Hospital and Hoboken University, CarePoint’s two other hospitals.
HRH says it can make BMC profitable within a year of taking over. Their projections showed BMC losing $46.8 million in 2023, but earning a $2.9 million in net income in 2024 under HRH management.
Its vision for achieving a stunning reversal of fortune is built upon “strong relationships with the community, physicians, employees, unions, vendors, payers and regulators both local and at the federal level,” the application says.
The 13 initiatives it lays out maneuver those relationships to establish a stable rate of hospital admissions and then potentially grow them.
Some are focused on the budget. One initiative, for example, is to bring HRH’s existing vendor rates to Bayonne. Another way to save is reducing fees for consulting, management, physician incentives and contract labor.
Other initiatives are focused on new ways of providing services. HRH wants to bring a musculoskeletal and surgical program to the hospital and create a program connecting community members to primary care physicians.
The certificate of need application touts HRH’s financial record, including increasing its own bottom line by nearly 200% within its first year. HRH Chairman Yan Moshe would pay CarePoint $13 million to assume operations of BMC, it says.
Beside the right to jointly purchase the valuable real estate under Christ Hospital, the deal would give HRH the exclusive right to negotiate a potential purchase of the land under Hoboken University Medical Center.
Everyone who spoke at the hour-long public meeting was supportive of the takeover, though union leaders say they want to see additional commitments from HRH, including a promise to keep the hospital open for at least 10 years.
Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) members, wearing red union shirts, cheered on speakers from their local and beyond who spoke passionately about the hospital’s importance to the community.
Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis recalled bringing his mother to the hospital, who experienced cardiac arrest as soon as they arrived. Had they needed to travel farther, she wouldn’t have survived, he said.
“To Hudson Regional Hospital, thank you,” he said. “Thank you for coming forward.”
Secaucus Town Administrator Gary Jeffas said his town saw a significant improvement in its hospital under HRH’s leadership. Officials from HRH did not speak at the hearing, but were present and called the evening “an important step forward.”
In a statement, CarePoint said “CarePoint Health fully supports the new approach of Hudson Regional Hospital, and the leadership team is in sync.”