>NJ board votes to recommend reopening Pascack Valley in Westwood
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011
BY LINDY WASHBURN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
The State Health Planning Board has voted to recommend that Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood be allowed to reopen.
The board voted five to one in favor of sending a recommendation to the state Health Commissioner to approve the project. Mary O’Dowd, the commissioner, has 120 days to make her decision.
Hackensack University Medical Center wants to open a 128-bed hospital at the site. After the vote, Hackensack’s president and CEO, Robert Garrett, said he was “elated.” If the commissioner approves the reopening, he said he hopes Pascack open during the fourth quarter of 2012.
Representatives of Englewood and The Valley Hospital, who have opposed the proposal for years, say they plan to sue the state Health Commissioner for a stay if she approves the project. But Richard Freeman, who has already been named chief executive of the proposed new hospital, said the joint venture will proceed towards an opening next fall.