Yet-to-Open Westwood Hospital Already Has Expansion Aims

With Valley Hospital struggling to modernize its own facilities through a controversial expansion project, a major competitor announced it too has visions of expansion – and it's not even open for business yet.

According to a Sunday report on northjersey.com, Hackensack University Medical Center at Pascack Valley is optimistic its new facility will drum up enough business to quickly expand. Pascack Valley Hospital declared bankrupcy in 2007 and has been dormant since.

“If we truly have the volume here and the support we think, within the next three years we’ll be looking to add inpatient rooms,” Chad Melton, chief executive of the 128-bed hospital, told the news website.

HUMC at Pascack Valley, scheduled to open June 1, is the first for-profit hospital in Bergen County. Its permit for 128 beds expires in three years, allowing it to apply for a larger bed count number in 2016 with the state.

Ridgewood's Valley Hospital and Englewood Hospital fought bitterly to keep the Westwood hospital shuttered, waging costly five-year legal battle. They claimed the most populous county in the state was already well-served by the existing medical facilities.

In its own "Renewal" expansion plan, Valley has estimated it could lose 1,800 annual inpatient discharges per year to HUMC–Pascack Valley, representing millions of dollars.

In many ways, Valley's own expansion efforts (dubbed "Renewal") seek to mirror elements of HUMC-Pascack's new site. 

All of HUMC at Pascack Valley's beds are in private rooms, and the diagnostic equipment housed on site is decidedly hi-tech. The rooms all feature bathrooms, modern beds which prevent bedsores, personal thermostats, televisions and in-room computers that allow nurses to spend more time with patients and reduce the likelihood of an error being made.

Valley hopes the village government approves its modified plan to convert its 451-bed facility from largely double-bed rooms to entirely single-bed rooms (the current healthcare standard) while expanding areas to operate more modern diagnostic equipment. Construction of a large parking garage is included in the plans.

Valley maintains a projected 77 percent growth in medical services to an aging population is the primary driver for expansion needs.

Hospital neighbors and – even government officials – have shown heavy resistance to Valley's plans, a stark contrast to the support that swelled for its rising Westwood rival.

Valley spokeswoman Megan Fraser told northjersey.com that it remains convinced it will continue to be a major player in the Bergen market due to its strong programs and staff.

In recent planning board meetings in Ridgewood, Valley officials have said the re-opening of Pascack Valley wouldn't greatly impact Valley's fiscal health. The hospitals expected to be most damaged by the HUMC-Pascack reopening are Englewood Hospital and Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, they said. What an expansion for HUMC-Pascack on top of that would mean is not yet clear.

Englewood Hospital is embarking on its own expansion, submitting plans to create a three-story addition. If approved, the construction would not increase bed counts but instead consolidate certain hospital functions.

HUMC-Pascack officials maintain New Jersey hospitals won't be hit hard by an expansion, according to the northjersey.com report.

“I don’t think New Jersey hospitals will lose the volume,” Melton told the news site. “Most of it will come from our ability to keep people from going into Manhattan. The city has the most to lose.”