Hospital Proposal Gets Tepid Response
By LINDY WASHBURN, STAFF WRITER
A proposal by a Connecticut company to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital as a smaller community hospital has not won Westwood Mayor John Birkner’s support.
The proposal by Paradigm Physician Partners is one of three the others include a medical school and possibly a sub-acute-care facility for the 280-bed hospital, which declared bankruptcy in September and closed in November.
Birkner says the Westwood Council "did not want to come out and endorse any specific entity." But he has problems with two aspects of Paradigm’s proposal: its desire to resell the hospital in two or three years, and its intent to develop some of the hospital’s unused 20-acre parcel.
"We’re looking for a functioning community hospital," he said. "We’re not looking for somebody to come in as a trial run here."
Westwood does not want to get into the business of running a hospital, as Paradigm has proposed, he said. As for the possible development of the property, he added that "we have zoning ordinances that we’re not willing to bend on."
Paradigm has asked that a bankruptcy auction be postponed for 30 days to allow it to produce a bid. As of Thursday afternoon, the auction was still scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.
In a letter to Judge Rosemary Gambardella, Geoffrey Teed, Paradigm’s president, said: "We’re confident that our model represents the best and most responsible use of Pascack Valley Hospital."
His group would open a 100- to 150-bed hospital, and invest in a new ambulatory surgery center, a redesign of the emergency room, new food court, parking garage and sterile supply areas. The four-story addition that had been built before the bankruptcy would retain its maternity rooms in a ground floor "women’s center" and be gutted upstairs for "build-to-suit" medical offices.
Paradigm’s bid would compete with a bid by Hackensack University Medical Center, in conjunction with Touro Medical College, and a bid jointly submitted by The Valley Hospital of Ridgewood and Englewood Hospital Medical Center.
It is not clear what clinical services Hackensack would provide at the site if its bid for a medical school were accepted. Both Hackensack and Touro officials have declined to speak about the bid. No details about Valley’s bid have been released.
"There is no assurance with the Hackensack plan of anything beyond an emergency room and holding bed facilities," said state Sen. Gerald Cardinale, in whose district the hospital lies.
"We are hoping that Judge Gambardella recognizes the needs of the community when she approves the sale," Birkner said. "Our goal is to get a lot of community services back to this hospital."
Oradell’s mayor and council submitted a resolution to the judge, asking her to consider "the public interest, the local medical workers, the volunteer emergency services and the potentially lost lives resulting from the absence of a local hospital."
A resolution submitted to the Bankruptcy Court by the Hillsdale mayor and council said that Hackensack’s plan "is the type of proposal that we endorse fully." The services to be supplied should include "at a minimum an emergency room with observation beds," the resolution said.
The union representing employees of the former hospital has not endorsed any of the bidders.
"We are pleased that at least one of the bidders is saying publicly they’ll reinvest in our community’s health needs, and support the workforce," said Ann Twomey, president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union, which represented nurses and techs. "We hope other bidders will follow suit."
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E-mail: washburn@northjersey.com
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