A Jersey City hospital will close its doors after 152 years of service after failing to get millions in support from the government, its parent company announced Friday.
Heights University Hospital will operate only as a standalone emergency department and support services starting on Saturday, said Dr. Nizar Kifaieh, president and chief executive officer of Hudson Regional Health.
The news, announced at a press conference, was not entirely a surprise. Hudson Regional, which owns the hospital, announced in October that it would begin to lay off staff and wind down services. As of Friday, just five patients remained in the hospital, said Kifaieh.
Hudson Regional has been strapped for cash.
Just seven months after Hudson Regional took over Heights University Hospital from CarePoint Health System, which had its own share of problems, the company made a public appeal for financial support.
On Friday, Kifaieh said that critical funding failed to materialize and the hospital will close.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get commitment from the governor’s office regarding funding for such an endeavor and we are where we are here today,” said Kifaieh.
Gov. Phil Murphy’s office directed questions to the state health department. The health department did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
Kifaieh said Hudson Regional has been trying hard to keep the hospital open and has pumped $300 million into operations, with a major portion dedicated to Heights University Hospital. Despite that investment, the hospital is losing $1.5 million per week.
“We believe that we put a lot of effort during this past year to make something out of what we have here, the unfortunate situation that we’re in financially. But again, we got to a point where we just could not,” said Kifaieh.
The hospital will continue to operate a standalone emergency department and provide other health care services out of its auxiliary building. The areas where there are no services will be shut down.
Employees at Heights Hospital also learned Thursday night about a delay in processing payroll and were notified that paychecks scheduled for Friday will be delayed.
In an email, employees were told the “delay is due to insufficient financial support from the State of New Jersey, along with severely constrained cash flow.”
The employees’ union, a local of Health Professionals and Allied Employees, said Hudson Regional has surpassed CarePoint as the worst employer in Hudson County.
“Hudson Regional has made this decision illegally with no regard for Department of Health regulations or the WARN Act. What will happen to the patients in this community? Their employees have been left without a paycheck for two weeks of work and without future employment,” union president Debbie White said in a statement Friday.
The company said all employees will be paid in full as soon as feasible. Heights Hospital has about 699 employees, said Kifaieh.
The larger Hudson Regional health network has already absorbed 100 full time employees affected by the hospital’s downsizing and plans to absorb about 100 more, he added.
Ward E Councilman James Solomon called on Murphy and the state health department to file an emergency injunction to prevent the hospital from closing.
“Enough of playing with people’s lives and playing with people’s health care,” Solomon said in an Instagram reel posted Nov. 13.
“Gov. Murphy, Commissioner Brown take action. Do not wash your hands of this situation. File the restraining order now,” said Solomon, who’s currently in a runoff election against former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey to become the city’s next mayor.
The hospital, located on Palisades Avenue, has been a fixture in the city through many seasons of change. It was originally founded in 1872 as Christ Hospital.
A Jersey City News article from 1897 describes the hospital as “one of the most admirable institutions in the city.”
But even a century ago, the hospital struggled to provide care with limited resources.
The 1897 news report said: “We have always understood that the hospital was cramped in its resources. It has no public aid whatever. It relies almost entirely upon the contributions of citizens, and these have hardly kept pace with the needs of a house which never closes its doors to the victims of sickness or disaster.”
It’s unclear what’s going to happen to the hospital site. Hudson Regional expressed interest last month in using part of the site for a residential housing development and using the profits to replace Heights Hospital, which has aging infrastructure.
Opponents to that plan, including Solomon, allege that replacing the hospital with development was the company’s plan all along.
Hospital officials denied that was their plan.
“None of us wanted to get to this point. This is not driven by any of the allegations out there that this is related to real estate development,” said Kifaieh.
Either way, that plan now faces an uphill battle.
On Wednesday, Jersey City officials voted to introduce an ordinance that would prevent senior housing and assisted living residences from being built in the city’s medical zone. If approved, the ordinance could impede Hudson Regional’s plans for future use of the property.
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