The state is considering a new owner for Bayonne Medical Center. A union is demanding financial guarantees
Taken from NJ.com
By Teri West | The Jersey Journal
November 8, 2024
Amid bankruptcy and plans for new ownership at CarePoint Health’s three floundering Hudson County hospitals, a healthcare workers union is asking for a guarantee the new owners will commit $50 million to Bayonne Medical Center and keep it open for at least 10 years.
Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) has members at Bayonne Medical Center (BMC) and submitted a list of requests to the state as the state Department of Health (DOH) prepares to review an application that would make Hudson Regional Hospital the facility’s new owner.
In addition to the monetary and longevity commitments, the HPAE asked that the state keep its appointed financial monitor for CarePoint, protect all employee jobs and ensure that the new owners commit to “safe staffing ratios.”
In September CarePoint issued WARN notices to all 2,600 employees that they could be laid off Dec. 12. The network filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Nov. 3 after months of accruing debts that ballooned to more than $108 million.
“Mismanagement has led us to the current state of affairs,” said HPAE President Debbie White. “Any future plan that falls short of these conditions will be unacceptable and a disservice to the communities in Hudson County.”
The state Health Planning Board is holding an hour-long public hearing Nov. 13 about Hudson Regional Hospital’s certificate of need application to gain ownership of Bayonne Medical Center.
The meeting, at 6 p.m. at the hospital cafeteria (29 E 29th St.), is open to the public.
CarePoint and Hudson Regional Hospital plan to team up as a new health system, Hudson Health System, and bring CarePoint’s three hospitals ― which also include Christ Hospital and Hoboken University Medical Center ― into a four-hospital network with Hudson Regional Hospital in Secaucus.
CarePoint’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy allow it to maintain assets and remain operational while restructuring its finances.
Carl J. Soranno of the law firm Brach Eichler represents one of the largest 30 CarePoint creditors and said clients in hospital bankruptcies are typically focused on how they will ultimately get paid and what financial risk they bear when continuing to provide services.
“The boots on the ground so to speak are still going to provide services and they’re going to do their job, they’re medical professionals,” he said, “but from a management standpoint there’s an overlying concern that we’re just going to go deeper and deeper and deeper.”
He said he hopes that the bankruptcy moves efficiently.
“I’ve seen in some other cases it drags on, and there’s litigation over the auctions, there’s litigation over the agreements and there’s just a lot of constituencies fighting amongst each other,” Soranno said. “You don’t want to see that happen.”
HPAE is asking the state to require the hospital owners to commit to investing $50 million in Bayonne Medical Center over five years for capital expenditures, a number HPAE Vice President Barbara Rosen said would not only maintain the existing infrastructure but improve it. She said the building has been neglected.
As for the commitment to keep the hospital open for at least 10 years, she said that should be enough time “for an operator with a track record of financial stability to turn the facility around.”
She said that morale among staff remains low due to health safety concerns on the job.
“Whether it is shortage of supplies or staffing, this can lead to moral injury for these healthcare workers,” Rosen said, referring to the psychological harm experienced when making tough decisions regarding people’s health without the adequate resources to care for them.
The union plans to have members and leaders at the hearing next week.