Hospital Closings Worrying Public

By Bob Groves, The Record, Hackensack, N.J.

Feb. 21–Half of New Jerseyans, particularly residents of North Jersey, are concerned that nearly 20 hospitals in the state closed in the past decade, a Rutgers study said.

Seventy-eight percent of New Jersey residents worry at least somewhat about whether the remaining hospitals in New Jersey can respond to mass casualty emergencies, according to the study released Wednesday by the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers.

“The closures, and the fact that several others are either in bankruptcy or filing for closure, raise concern about the ability of the state’s hospitals to meet the needs of residents in emergencies such as major disease outbreaks, natural disasters or terrorist attacks,” said Derek DeLia, lead author of the opinion poll on hospital capacity.

Public concern over hospital closures is the strongest in Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Essex counties, where 10 hospitals have closed since 1997, DeLia said. The closings included Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, Barnert Hospital in Paterson and PBI Regional Medical Center in Passaic. Five hospitals in central Jersey and four in south Jersey, also shut down during that period.

Concern about hospital closures and emergency response was also very strong among black, Hispanic and inner-city residents, and uninsured, low-income residents. Vulnerable and minority populations have greater concerns because they rely on hospitals for a wide range of medical care services, DeLia said. They “could easily be left behind during a disaster if special considerations are not made in disaster planning activities,” he said.

In the survey of 1,104 adults made in June and July, 32 percent were “very worried” about overall hospital closures in New Jersey, and 42 percent were “very worried” about closures in the northeast region of the state. Forty-nine percent of residents in northeast New Jersey were “very worried” about hospital disaster response, compared with 35 percent of residents in the northwest and central west regions of the state, which have had no hospital closures. Overall, 44 percent of respondents were very worried about hospital preparedness.

Inadequate reimbursement by state charity care and federal Medicare and Medicaid funding is the cause of hospital closures and lack of emergency preparedness, Betsy Ryan of the New Jersey Hospital Association said Wednesday.

“The pace of closures is accelerating in our state as hospitals continue to struggle against chronically low payments from state and federal government,” Ryan, president-elect and chief operating officer of the association, said in a statement.

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