Hospital Auction Might Be Shifted at Urging of Medical College Bidder
By LINDY WASHBURN, STAFF WRITER
The auction of the bankrupt Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood is expected to be moved up a week to Feb. 27 at the request of the medical school that wants to buy the site with Hackensack University Medical Center.
Touro University College of Medicine is seeking accreditation for a new medical school, planned to open in New Jersey in September 2009. An important site visit by the accrediting agen-cy has long been scheduled for March 2-4.
“It is imperative that the auction be held before the March 2 site visit,” the dean of the college, Paul Wallach, said Wednesday in a certification to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Pascack Valley Hospital’s attorney, Jack Zackin, informed others participating in the auction that he had agreed to the request, and would ask Judge Rosemary Gambardella to approve it.
The medical school cannot recruit students for the class entering in 2009 unless it receives preliminary accreditation as a result of this visit, Wallach said. The site visit “cannot be rescheduled” without jeopardizing the September 2009 opening date.
The college’s plans for the Pascack Valley site, and its purchase agreement for the site, would be included as a supplement to the submission for accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Touro also owns an office building in Hasbrouck Heights where classroom instruction could take place.
The bid by Touro and Hackensack is one of at least three bids for the hospital and its 20-acre site.
Another offer includes a joint venture by The Valley Hospital of Ridgewood and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center that would include urgent care but no overnight acute-care services. The other bid is by Paradigm Physician Partners, a Connecticut health-care consultancy that would reopen a community hospital with 100 to 150 beds.
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E-mail: washburn@northjersey.com
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