News: 03/01/08 - Save Muhlenberg Rally - Ledger

200 rally against Plainfield hospital closing

Sunday, March 02, 2008

BY NAWAL QAROONI
Star-Ledger Staff

Jayne Lendach was born at Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield, the same place where she gave birth to her son, Kyle, and has worked as an administrator since 1982.

Now, Lendach's job is in jeopardy and the facility she holds dear is planning to close.

"It's a shame and an outrage. We serve the poor. We don't turn anyone away," the 50-year-old Dunellen resident said. "We're an essential hospital and the community needs us. How can this happen?"

Lendach joined nearly 200 other hospital employees and local residents yesterday to protest the decision to close the hospital due to mounting deficits caused mainly by insufficient state aid for its uninsured patients. The announcement by Solaris Health Care System, which owns the 396-bed acute-care facility, came last month.

The 130-year-old hospital plans to file formal papers with the state Department of Health and Senior Services tomorrow seeking the closure. If approved, programs and services will be phased out before the hospital finally stops admitting patients, probably within a few months.

Muhlenberg, whose emergency room treats 35,000 patients a year and which has 1,100 employees, was put up for sale last November, with no serious buyers.

When asked to respond to allegations made to The Star-Ledger that Solaris last month had received a signed letter of intent from at least one company interested in purchasing the hospital, officials on Friday continued to insist there were no "formal offers."

"A formal offer from our perspective would need to both outline the terms of conditions and the demonstrated financial viability to purchase the hospital," Solaris spokesman Thomas Casey said. "There were no formal offers under those parameters."

If there is still "someone out there who wants to purchase Muhlenberg," the interested party should contact Cain Brothers, the New York-based investment firm that is handling the hospital's proceedings, Casey said.

More than half of New Jersey's 78 community care hospitals are facing major financial difficulties, the result of economic forces including increased operating costs and reduced reimbursement from major insurers like Medicare. In the last six months, three have closed. Others, including Saint James and Columbus in Newark and Greenville in Jersey City, are slated to shut their doors soon.

In Muhlenberg's case, the hospital provided about $15.4 million in uncompensated care last year, but received only $6.2 million from the state in charity care funding, spokesman Steven Weiss has said.

JFK Medical Center in Edison, Muhlenberg's sister facility, will remain open, as will the home care service the two hospitals jointly operate. Muhlenberg merged with JFK -- a 380-bed hospital about five miles away in Middlesex County -- in 1997 to form the Solaris Health System. Once Muhlenberg closes, JFK will be the closest acute-care hospital to Plainfield.

That is why Roberto Velez, 49, of Plainfield, joined the protesters yesterday, many of whom carried signs reading "Save Muhlenberg Hospital" and chanted "Ho ho, hey hey, Muhlenberg has got to stay."

"My wife had a heart attack three months ago in church and almost died," said Velez, a warehouse employee. "If she had to go to a hospital farther than Muhlenberg, it would have been too late."

Robert Noh, a urologist at Muhlenberg, said he was protesting because hospitals are simply too essential to lose.

"This hospital plays a vital role in the community," said Noh, who lives in Bridgewater. "The government isn't supporting a place that has been serving for 130 years."

Peter Clary Jr. was another of the protesters who was born at Muhlenberg, just a stone's throw from where he was raised.

"They saved my life more than once here," said Clary, 49, who works in the mailroom at Rutgers University. "I can understand them scaling back their services, but not close it down. We need this place."
Susie Leonardis, 62, who has worked at the hospital since 1969 when she emigrated from Italy, said she is worried for staff who may not be able to secure jobs elsewhere.

"What will happen to them? Who can employ all these people?" said Leonardis, of South Plainfield. "The government should step in and save it."

Nawal Qarooni may be reached at nqarooni@starledger.com or (732) 404-8082. Staff writer Angela Stewart contributed to this report.

Link to online story HERE.