{"id":26494,"date":"2025-11-03T06:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T06:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/26494\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T06:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T06:12:07","slug":"new-health-system-may-shutter-its-jersey-city-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/26494\/","title":{"rendered":"New health system may shutter its Jersey City hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\"\"Credit: (NJ Spotlight News)A \u201cSave Our Hospital\u201d sign outside of Height University Hospital in Jersey City.<\/p>\n

Less than six months after being taken over<\/a>, Hudson Regional Health is now saying the Jersey City hospital, renamed Heights University Hospital, will likely need to close. Hudson Regional Health, that took over all three hospitals in the CarePoint system, including ones in Bayonne and Hoboken.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis hospital has been, just like the rest, have been completely ignored by prior ownership. No investment in infrastructure, no investment in mechanicals, no investments in improving the salary points for some employees,\u201d said Dr. Nizar Kifaieh, president and CEO of Hudson Regional Health. \u201cIt serves a completely underserved population. 65% of the population that\u2019s being seen at Heights is either charity care, undocumented, self-pay or managed Medicaid. After we took over the management of these hospitals, we were faced with the fact that the state cut charity care by 50%.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kifaieh says the client base in Jersey City made this hospital the most vulnerable of all of them. And that the state cuts, combined with federal changes to Medicaid, left its future uncertain. So, the hospital undertook what he calls a right-sizing, shrinking it\u2019s 520 full-time staff by about 100 positions, and closing what the health system calls \u201cnon-essential services<\/a>.\u201d That includes drastically reducing the operating room, and closing several units, including cardiac-pulmonary and medi-surgery.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Debbie White, president of the state\u2019s largest nurses and other health professionals union, says the health system has violated their collective bargaining agreement, but trying to shift staff to other hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have about 250 members at Christ Hospital, or Heights University Hospital. And all of them were targeted for layoffs. Since that time, we have no written notice telling us exactly who resigned, who was laid off and who is not targeted for layoff. We don\u2019t have that in writing at all,\u201d said White, president of Health Professionals & Allied Employees.<\/p>\n

They also say Hudson Regional Health violated the state\u2019s WARN act, that requires 90 days notice for any mass-layoffs. Hudson Regional Health denies that claim, saying all decisions have been made in consultation with labor law attorneys and the state monitor.<\/p>\n

But union members were also shocked to learn that, one day before the lay-off notices went out, Hudson Regional Health submitted plans to the Jersey City planning board for a condo complex on the property. They believe that was the plan for the hospital all along.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Hudson Regional Health sent a letter to the state, asking for $18 million dollars in stabilization aid.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson), who represents the Heights neighborhood, said he plans to introduce a bill to provide the hospital with state aid, but cautions approval of the real estate project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be disappointed if the city allowed development to occur here, unless it was with strict guard guard rails and in conjunction with a plan that would ensure the hospital stays afloat, that and that an ED, that the emergency room was kept intact along with other essential acute care services,\u201d said Mukherji.<\/p>\n

Hudson Regional Health has called for the state to respond to their request for funding by Nov. 10 or says they\u2019ll consider a complete closure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: (NJ Spotlight News)A \u201cSave Our Hospital\u201d sign outside of Height University Hospital in Jersey City. Less than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16795,16796,10608,10609,11487,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-26494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-carepoint","tag-christ-hospital","tag-heights-university-hospital","tag-hudson-regional-health","tag-jersey-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}