|
|
The closure is not total, though. In granting permission to close, the board ordered the hospital to provide emergency services for at least the next six months. Further, HCO would be required to provide primary-care service on an out-patient basis.
Residents still have one more chance: Clifton Lacy, the state's health commissioner. The board's decision is a recommendation to Lacy, who has 120 days to decide on the hospital's closure.
Other orders included the provision of transportation to bring patients to other hospitals and signs to tell potential patients where to go for medical care.
City officials believed a show of force might sway the board's decision. Three buses transported senior residents from their apartment complexes to the Ramada Inn in East Windsor Township, Mercer County. While some residents had an opportunity to speak before the board, their words appeared to have no effect.
Cathedral Healthcare Systems is owned by the Archdiocese of Newark. It retains two hospitals, St. Michael's and Columbus, both of which are in Newark. The company previously closed two hospitals, including St. Mary's in Orange.
Prior to the meeting, Cathedral and the hospital already had been reducing its in-patient roster through transfers to other area hospitals. A layoff of employees may have forced the hand of Marilyn Dahl, the state's deputy health commissioner. When presented with the staff decline, Dahl allowed the transfers, citing safety concerns.
However, since no action was to be taken before Thursday's decision, the hospital faces state fines levied on it a day earlier.
Thursday's hearing was another chapter in Cathedral's attempt to close the hospital at South Essex Avenue and Henry Street. When it filed its application for closure, Cathedral cited potential cuts of about $17 million in federal and state aid based on declines in reimbursement payments.
Word of HCO's potential closure began circulating in the summer, then extended into the fall with Cathedral's application to close. A Cathedral spokesman, during a City Council meeting Jan. 6, said the hospital would be unable to function after the end of January due to finances. Without money, it would be unable to make payments, especially salaries.
During that meeting, and repeated often since, have been accusations that Cathedral has increased its administration fees drastically. The hospital reportedly was charged $3.9 million in 2001 and $4.2 million in 2002. That fee reportedly jumped by nearly 150 percent, to $10.7 million, in 2003.
The doctors also have tried to keep the hospital open. Dr. Sanjay Seth, the doctors' spokesman, said the doctors had obtained a $10 million loan offer in an attempt to keep the hospital open. This, he said, was not considered either by Cathedral or the health board.
Cathedral, however, earlier questioned the feasibility of a financial plan previously submitted by staff doctors. They cited a consulting firm, Deloitte Consulting, which stated the doctors' plan would not allow the hospital to survive given the cuts in reimbursements.
The hearing was the second opportunity for residents to present testimony related to the hospital's potential closure. A hearing was presented Jan. 7 in the auditorium of Orange Middle School.
City officials, including City Council members, objected to the site of the Jan. 22 hearing. Councilman-at-Large Allan Barnhardt spoke during the Jan. 20 council meeting about the hearing's location.
"I find it appalling, mind-boggling, that they would have the hearing so far away," said Barnhardt, who said the site was off Exit 8 of the N.J. Turnpike. "It seems like it is a plan to make this a disaster from the beginning."
Coram Rimes, the council's president, said it was imperative for the hospital's license to remain active. Maintaining the license would allow another hospital or organization to come in and operate sooner than if they had to secure a new license.
