NJ Lawmakers Press Health Officials on Hospital Closure Oversight

New Jersey’s Assembly Budget Committee put state Health Commissioner Raynard Washington on the spot Wednesday over whether the state has the tools to prevent hospitals from shutting down without proper oversight, following the closure of Heights University Hospital in Jersey City last month.

The hearing exposed real frustration on both sides of the aisle. Democratic and Republican members pressed Washington on the state’s capacity to regulate all 71 acute care facilities across New Jersey, and several lawmakers said they’re worried about what happens to communities when a hospital disappears.

Assemblyman Gabriel Rodriguez, a Democrat who represents Hudson County districts just north of Jersey City including West New York, put the geography plainly. “If someone is having a heart attack in West New York, there is no way that Englewood or Holy Name Hospital in Bergen County can be the closest hospital that they get to,” Rodriguez said. He told the committee that residents in those densely populated communities already struggle to access care, and that concern has only grown since Heights University closed its emergency room in mid-March.

The worry isn’t just about response times.

“The concern is growing rapidly,” Rodriguez said.

Heights University, long known as Christ Hospital, operated out of a building that is more than 150 years old. It was one of only two acute-care facilities serving a city of nearly 300,000 people. The hospital, one of four operated by the Hudson Regional Health system, suspended inpatient admissions last fall without full state approval. State officials have since fined the system $128,000 for violating procedures.

Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin, the Essex County Democrat who chairs the budget committee, said she knows from her own district what a closure does to a neighborhood. Newark has lived it. “Closure of a hospital to a community that is growing deteriorates the area,” she told the committee. She said she wants state government to take that seriously.

Washington told the committee that the New Jersey Department of Health continues to examine the health needs of Jersey City and the surrounding region as part of the ongoing closure process with Heights University. He didn’t offer a timeline.

The situation got more complicated in mid-April when Heights University executives announced they want to reopen the facility and persuaded a judge to temporarily halt the state’s closure process. That reversal came just weeks after hospital leadership had argued that financial losses at Heights University, projected to exceed $30 million this year, were putting the entire Hudson Regional Health system at risk. Executives declined to explain what changed.

Assemblyman Michael Inganamort, a Morris County Republican, asked Washington for a progress update during the hearing, reflecting the breadth of concern across the committee. NJ Monitor first reported on the exchange, which came as lawmakers reviewed the department’s budget.

The New Jersey Hospital Association tracks hospital capacity statewide, and state law gives the Certificate of Need program oversight authority over major facility changes including closures. But Wednesday’s hearing made clear that legislators from both parties think that authority either wasn’t used fast enough or doesn’t carry enough force when a hospital decides to pull back services before the state can act.

Washington acknowledged the situation at Heights University is a real concern. The department hasn’t yet said publicly what, if anything, it plans to do if the court eventually lifts the temporary halt and the closure moves forward again.