>Next stop in dispute over reopening Pascack Valley Hospital is the Appellate Division of state Superior Court
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
BY LINDY WASHBURN
The Record
STAFF WRITER
https://www.northjersey.com/news/85019202_A_victory_for_Pascack_foes_.html
The next stop in the fight over whether Hackensack University Medical Center should be allowed to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital will be the Appellate Division of Superior Court, after a ruling Monday from state Superior Court Judge Peter E. Doyne.
Doyne declared that the proper jurisdiction for determining if the state’s Permit Extension Act of 2008 applies to the Westwood hospital license is the Appellate Division, not Superior Court.
That appeal could take as long as a year — and it would center solely on whether the deadline for reactivating the license could be extended beyond last Dec. 28, not on whether Hackensack’s application to do so should be approved.
The two hospitals opposed to reopening the Westwood hospital considered Monday’s ruling a victory. The longer the region goes without a hospital in Westwood, the harder it will be to prove that one is needed, they say.
“A new and unnecessary hospital only serves to weaken” the health care system in Bergen County, said Megan Fraser, a spokeswoman for The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood. “Since it opened its doors almost 60 years ago, Valley has welcomed patients from the Pascack Valley area.”
Englewood Hospital and Medical Center said through its spokeswoman that “Our dedicated physicians, nurses and other staff members have been providing uninterrupted, high-quality care to surrounding communities since [Pascack Valley Hospital] closed, and we continue to assist local towns, expand outreach efforts and provide more health care services to these communities.”
In the 28-page decision, Doyne expressed frustration with the “procedural machinations” in the case. But the question before him was narrow, not a substantive one about the public’s health care needs, he wrote.
“One is compelled to wonder whether the interests of Bergen County residents are best served by mandating the licensing process start anew,” he wrote, particularly since the problem “may have been caused by a misunderstanding of various procedural requirements.”
But that, “unfortunately, is beyond the province of this court.”
Hackensack said Monday it was still “100 percent committed” to opening the hospital. “We will take all the necessary steps, including having our case heard in the Appellate Division,” said spokeswoman Anne Marie Campbell.
Without an extension, Hackensack’s current application to reopen the hospital is moot. It still might ask the state Health Department for a new declaration that a hospital is needed in the region, with an accompanying call for applications, according to an attorney representing the department. But that process could take three to four years, Deputy Attorney General Susan J. Dougherty said in court Friday.
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