Strong community voices called attention to the proposed sale of Christ Hospital and prevented a rushed sale with almost no guarantees about the hospital's future. Now that the hospital will be sold through an open bidding process in bankruptcy, community leadership will help to preserve hospital services.

COMMUNITY MEETING
Thursday 3/8 - 7pm
Second Reformed Church
940 Summit Ave at Zabriskie St
Parking at municipal lot, 1 block away
Central Ave at Griffith St
Map

Help demonstrate that our community is united around the preservation of Christ Hospital and quality health care.

Confirmed:
Sen. Brian Stack
Mayor Jerramiah Healy or Deputy Mayor
Assemblyman Jason O'Donnell
Councilwoman Nidia Lopez

We will also be announcing the endorsement of many other elected officials for our Principles for Christ Hospital's Future.

RSVP online.

Thanks for all who came out last night. We counted 120 in the room at one time for about 140 total.

Here's a link to the Jersey Journal article on the meeting: CEO defends deal.

Not mentioned in the article was the great presentation at the end of the meeting by Renee Steinhagen, an attorney with NJ Appleseed, who covered some of the legal structure to help protect the public interest in non-profit hospital sales.

It's clear there will be on-going activities about the sale, and there is a strong community core which wants to fight to help see that our interests are protected in this process. Thanks again to all the participating organizations, speakers, and community members who helped make this a successful event. (More details at savechristhospital.org and facebook.com/savechristhospital.

Christ Hospital is a "Stroke Center", specially set up for stroke victims. My friend suffered a stroke recently and had a quick and almost complete recovery thanks to Christ Hospital.

Remember, in an emergency you will be taken to the closest hospital, and minutes spent being carried a longer distance to a hospital will count toward your survival and recovery. ( JC paramedical services will not be transporting you across the river to NYC)

Christ Hospital also has doctor's offices that many JC residents use and many wellness and counseling programs that are necessary to the lives of JC residents.

Hope you will come to the meeting tonight to find out more.


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TONIGHT!
Wednesday 12/14 7pm
Abundant Joy Christian Center
137 Bowers St (at Central Ave)

Invited guests:
Christ Hospital Board of Trustees (CEO Peter Kelly confirmed)
NJ Attorney General (Representative confirmed)
NJ Commissioner of Health & Senior Services Mary E. O'Dowd

15 community organizations are participating in planning this meeting and fostering community involvement in determining the future of Christ Hospital.

Please come to hear real information about the proposed sale. We have 3 speakers giving brief presentations:
- Peter Kelly, CEO of Christ Hospital
- Ann Twomey, President of HPAE representing Christ Hospital nurses
- Jeff Kaplowitz, Community leader & concerned citizen

There will be 1/2 hour for questions & answers. Please see savechristhospital.org for more info and a map, also track the issue at facebook.com/savechristhospital.

Thanks for your engagement and support!

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Well, when I dislocated and fractured my shoulder, it was nice to have an emergency room two blocks away. The care I got there was pretty good.

My wife also went there for diagnostic work (referred there by our doctor). The technician (a former doctor from Cuba) was excellent. I think we got better service there than my wife got in NYC. We couldn't find an endocrinologist in the area, so I had to get her one in NYC. My doctor warned me that would happen. Due to the high levels of obesity driven diabetes, the local specialists are overwhelmed with patients.

I'm still not sure why anyone would go to Christ Hospital. Does it specialize in anything? Is that specialization going to be better than a facility than Manhattan?

Any way of breaking up this conversation based on services in Christ?

Outpatient
Diagnostic
Inpatient

Kind of thing?

For example I know there are a lot of dental/ outpatient/ diagnostic services provided by Christ, that don't necessarily need to be there.

Thanks, Althea, for hosting a great meeting! I was really impressed with the quality of questions from all over the room. We heard again how much ordinary people have invested in this hospital.

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The problem is a viable business model. When your primary income comes from Medicaid ER calls, you're in trouble. Most people with good insurance around here will go to a bigger more prestigious hospital for the lucrative elective surgery and procedures. The for profit model of Bayonne and Hoboken is to not be in network for most peoples insurance, thereby getting much more money for ER calls by non-medicaid patients.

If Christ is to survive (weird phrase huh?) it needs more than wishful thinking, it needs a business plan that justifies it's existence. My gut says that being part of JCMC is probably the thing that will get us the best balanced and coordinated service, but I have no proof.

Too many hospitals!?!?

Guess you've never been in the ER for 36 hours waiting for a bed to open up.

The monthly meeting of the Hilltop Neighborhood Association will be addressing this issue tonight. A representative of the Nurses' union will also be there.

Date: 12/12/11
Time: 7:30
Where: Basement of St. Joseph's Church
511 Pavonia Avenue
PARKING IN BACK off of Magnolia street

The area has too many hospitals. This is the same reason Hoboken University Medical center was sold to the city and became a University Medical center several years ago, and why Hoboken is struggling to divest itself of it.

Christ Hospital is in a similar situation, only they happen to sit on valuable real estate with million dollars views.

There are other threads tracking news reports about the planned sale of Christ Hospital. Here's a place to discuss the impact of such a sale on our community.

Here are some of the major issues I see.

1. Quality & affordability of healthcare. For-profit hospitals typically seek to divert less-profitable patients to other facilities, and raise rates billed to insurers and patients.

2. Impact on Jersey City Medical Center. The sale of Christ Hospital would leave JCMC as the only non-profit hospital left in the area (St. Francis closed, Greenville closed, Meadowlands, Bayonne & Hoboken/St. Mary converted to for-profit). JCMC already struggles with the amount of service it provides to uninsured and charity care patients.

3. Conversion of real estate. This deal seems much more like a play for real estate than it does a plan for community health care. The prospective buyer has already said they will sell the real estate to a holding company, taking it out of hospital control and paving the way for a significant downsizing or closing of the hospital in the future.

4. Jobs. Christ Hospital provides good jobs to many local residents. The hospital has already sent layoff notices to 103 nurses, including the President and Vice President of the local union, which has been questioning the sale.

There are probably lots of other issues. I?d like to see an open review process with meaningful public involvement. Jersey City and the State of NJ have invested a lot in this hospital, keeping it off the tax rolls for 139 years precisely because of the way the non-profit hospital provided a valuable community service: healthcare not just to the privileged, but to the entire community.

What do you think?

savechristhospital.org
facebook.com/savechristhospital