BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Signs with a new name for Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen went up on the waterfront campus Saturday after a judge late Friday approved Hackensack University Health Network’s acquisition of the Hudson County hospital.
HackensackUMC Palisades, as it will now be known, will become a fully owned part of the system that includes the flagship Hackensack University Medical Center, two jointly owned hospitals in Westwood and Montclair, and the affiliated Englewood Hospital Medical Center, when the deal is officially signed on Tuesday.
With its million-dollar views of the Manhattan skyline and access to the growing population of young professionals and affluent retirees along the Hudson River “Gold Coast,” Palisades gives Hackensack a prime opportunity to grow in Hudson County and southern Bergen County. Hackensack also acquires its first nursing home, the 245-bed Harborage, located next door on River Road and owned by Palisades.
The sale also marks a reduction in the number of independent community hospitals, as the consolidation of health-care facilities into larger systems continues in New Jersey and the rest of the country. When the Hackensack health network completes its planned merger with the Jersey Shore’s Meridian Health system, expected later this year, it will encompass 11 hospitals and become the largest health system in the state.
