>Valley, Englewood hospitals present last stand as Pascack Valley battle heads to hearing
By Beth Fitzgerald
On the eve of a Health Department hearing on Hackensack University Medical Center’s plan to reopen the former Pascack Valley Hospital, in Westwood, opponents on Tuesday released new studies they commissioned that support their argument that Bergen County has excess hospital beds and reopening the hospital will divert hundreds of patients and millions in revenue from Valley Hospital, in Ridgewood, and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.
The hearing by the State Health Planning Board, expected to draw hundreds, will be 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Westwood Regional Junior/Senior High School, in Washington Township.
In today’s press briefing at Englewood Hospital, representatives of Valley and Englewood disputed statistics Hackensack UMC presented in its application for a certificate of need to open a 128-bed hospital at the Pascack Valley site, which Hackensack currently operates as a satellite emergency department.