New operator for Bayonne hospital promises a new day
Taken from NJSpotlight
By , Senior Political Correspondent/Anchor
November 27, 2024
Hudson Regional Health CEO Nizar Kifaieh delivered good news to a curious staff at Bayonne Medical Center on Tuesday morning, announcing the troubled facility is poised for a turnaround after it had shuttered operations in key specialties and struggled to keep basic supplies on hand.
“It’s taken us a long time to get here, but we are here now,” said Kifeaieh, who will take over operation of the hospital pending final state approval.
“We’re dedicated to bringing this hospital to where it’s supposed to be, to bring it to its prime, to have it even exceed everybody’s expectations,” he said.
The news comes after CarePoint, the former operator of Bayonne Medical Center, Christ Hospital in Jersey City, and Hoboken University Medical Center, filed for bankruptcy. That left the county, the most densely populated in the state, in a precarious position of losing one or more of its hospitals.
Kifaieh said changes at the Bayonne Medical Center are already underway. The cardiac catheterization or CATH lab had been poised to be shut down, meaning patients who have acute heart attacks have to be transferred outside this facility. But, as of this week, the CATH is back and running.
“This is the only facility in Bayonne that has a CATH lab,” he said. “This is one of the best CATH labs in the state of New Jersey.”
Updated and new operating rooms, a physical therapy center, sleep lab and other technology upgrades are also on the way, beginning in just a few weeks, said Kifaieh. The emergency room and lobby, pharmacy and doctor’s lounges are all also due for major renovations.
On Tuesday, Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis and other officials who were said to be involved in some tough talks over the past year were feeling as if this chapter for the hospital — the third or fourth, depending on how you look at it — will be the one that takes.
“I can honestly say, for the first time in maybe 25 or 30 years, that I am confident that we have owners of Bayonne hospital, and we are not going to go through this again 10 years from now,” he said to applause.
The ink on this agreement is not yet dry. In addition to state approval, assumed but not certain, a union representative on Tuesday said they’re still waiting to hear back from management about what their relationship will be in the future.
“We do have concerns,” said Debbie White, president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees. “We have sent them an agreement for recognition, and what that is, is written assurance to our members that they will recognize the union, the collective bargaining agreement, that’s our contract, and not make them reapply for their jobs. In other words, they will have jobs when this acquisition takes place.”
Officials were not taking questions on Tuesday.