Newarkers critical of state’s process
Thursday, March 13, 2008 BY CARMEN JURI
Star-Ledger Staff
Because of swelling in her leg, Connie Vitolo Garcia’s doctors needed to determine if she had a blood clot.
Since those tests are no longer offered at Saint James Hospital, the 89-year-old Ironbound resident had to take a taxi yesterday to Clara Maass Hospital in Belleville. The driver waited a couple of hours. The bill: $75.
“I don’t have that money,” Gar cia told the driver, who agreed to wait another day for payment.
Garcia, like many others, laments that her neighborhood hospital no longer offers certain services, and community representatives plan to speak at a joint public hearing tomorrow before representatives from the attorney general and the Department of Health and Senior Services at Hilton Newark Penn Station Hotel.
The hearing before the health department will be at 5 p.m., followed by a 7 p.m. hearing before the attorney general.
The hearing will be the second for the community, but many say it is just a formality since the hospital has been scheduled to close on Saturday for months.
“The process the state is using is faulty and they have been closing the hospital before the hearings,” said Nancy Zak of the Ironbound Community Corp. “We want everything to be done according to state regulations, to get as many health services in Saint James as possible with guarantees.”
Cathedral Healthcare System approved an agreement in January to close Saint James and Columbus hospitals in the city’s North Ward. Cathedral officials have said the hospitals are losing millions of dollars each month due to declining reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid.
Under the agreement, the city’s third Catholic hospital, Saint Michael’s Medical Center, will remain open and receive an infusion of $100 million for improvements from its new owner, Catholic Health East.
Catholic Health East has agreed to some concessions, including maintaining a 24-hour satellite emergency room and a prenatal clinic at Saint James. For now, the mental health clinic will remain.
But Renee Steinheigen, an at torney with New Jersey Appleseed, said nothing is in writing and she wants Catholic Health East to formally commit to certain services at Saint James.
“A nonprofit is a quasi public institution that is highly regulated. Where is the state bringing coordination and security to vulnerable populations in Newark that they will not be denied access to health care?” she said.
She said March 15 has always been the end point of the closure, a date that officials could formally say there are no more acute care facilities.
“There’s a process here that is clearly not abided by and it’s a process that has substantial impact,” Steinheigen said. “The day that Cathedral filed the application to close Saint James was Jan. 15, 2007. They issued a closure plan, proceeding to close the acute care facilities at that institution.”
Steinheigen said the applicant must tell the state why it can close these services so that no negative impact will befall the community. Through community meetings, members of the health care representatives and others give their say.
“This has to happen. The department has the power to permit a hospital to close, but with condi tions,” she said.
Steinheigen, who has been involved in several hospital closures including Mountainside Hospital and Orange Memorial, said the clo sure should be done over a period of time rather than having patients flood another facility.
“The outrage is a rightful outrage. The state has passively allowed the institution to close the hospital prior to the process being completed,” she said.
Soon after the January decision, local leaders including East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador, Assemblyman Al Coutinho (D-Essex), North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos and others formed a steering committee that led to public meetings in each ward to hear recommendations.
But talks about the closing were in the works since last year, say residents, and no one sought views from the community on how to proceed.
Alexander Hatala, chief transition officer for Catholic Health East, has said transportation to Saint Michael’s from Saint James would be arranged through local ambulance squads. Hatala has also stated that Catholic Health East has committed to providing on-site specialty clinics and in the next 12 to 18 months, a 60-bed acute care hospital on site, adding that the advocacy by Amador and Coutinho were key in the negotiation of this entire process.
Steinheigen said it shouldn’t take politicians to save the ER.
“Why is it depended on local politicians to determine what services need to remain or not,” she said.
Christina Hilo, one of the organizers for Newark United to Save St. James, spent time yesterday at the Ironbound Senior Center listening to the concerns of clients.
“A lot of people have been say ing they want mammograms, CAT scans and ultrasounds (at Saint James),” she said. “And for the women who use the prenatal clinic to have a birthing center located in hospital without them having to take a taxi.”
