NEWS
Residents rally for hospital
There is a battle brewing between those who are seeking a full service hospital here and Valley Hospital, Englewood Medical Center, and others who claim the community’s medical needs have been met by surrounding hospitals since Pascack Valley Hospital shut its doors last year, and that the re-opening would hurt area hospitals already reeling from the latest state cuts in funding.
Opposing petitions have been circulating in anticipation of next month’s Certificate of Need Hearing and the rhetoric from both sides has escalated in recent weeks.
On Monday, however, most opinions expressed were in harmony and could be read on the placards being carried by many of those in attendance: “We Need Our Hospital.”
Dr. Terry Lardaro, a nursing administrator from Westwood had worked at PVH until it closed. She expressed her relief at the re-opening of the ER.
“I think it’s very important for the community. It is an aged community which needs a hospital. It is very inconvenient especially for seniors to go to Valley or Englewood, where you often have to wait for six or seven hours to be seen.”
The longest standing member of the staff at the former PVH, Dr. Theodore Goldberg of Westwood Cardiology Associates, spoke of his desire to roll up his sleeves and get back to work at the site. “I started the day it opened and will be working hard at the new hospital. I think there’s a definite need for an acute care facility here.”
Westwood Mayor John Birkner said he was overjoyed at the rally’s turnout and expressed optimism about the upcoming Certificate of Need Hearing.
“This is a day of celebration. We are here to celebrate this great opportunity we have now to bring a full service hospital back to Westwood, back to the Pascack Valley, the Northern Valley, and the entire Northeastern New Jersey,” he said.
“There are people here who recognize what the need is. There is a voice, and this voice is carrying down to Trenton, right now it’s resonating loud and clear in the offices of the State House that this hospital has to be re-established.”
Since the emergency department re-opened on Oct. 1, John Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of HUMC, said that the facility has treated 400 patients, about twice as much as hospital officials were expecting. “What I saw today is a huge show of support from the community and from the whole Pascack Valley. This is not about one hospital competing against another hospital, it is about what the people want and need.”
Woodcliff Lake Councilwoman Josephine Higgins worked as a paramedic and nurse at PVH from 1983 until the closing and has also volunteered for the TriBoro Ambulance Corps for the past 35 years. She provided some perspective on the impact of the ER reopening for emergency personnel and their patients.
“Sometimes a patient’s life lies in a matter of seconds. Somebody who’s having a stroke, the longer they go without oxygen to the brain, the more extensive the stroke is going to be. Time is heart muscle. It is very important to get them in here and stabilize them,” she said. “I’ve already been back in here with patients. It just gives us the ability to be closer to our hometown, so we can come back and get patients quickly.”
Higgins commented that when the emergency room was closed, ambulances would often take patients to HUMC or EMC, and have a hard time getting back to the Pascack Valley area in order to respond quickly to a call.
“A lot of times we’d be back at Hackensack and a call would come in from around here and we’d do what we call a quick turn around and go and get it. But when you’re in Hackensack, it’s quite dangerous to come red light and siren back to get another call. Plus, the emergency rooms have been so overcrowded since (PVH closed). It returns the care people need in an emergency room.”
Many at the scene were longtime residents of the Pascack Valley and cheered as they listened to speakers arguing the area’s need for a hospital.
Donald Hodges, a Westwood resident since 1924, said that he’s “seen a lot of changes” in the area since his youth, but that nothing about the community’s need for a hospital has changed since it first rallied for the opening of PVH in the early 1950s.
He was a member of the Westwood Volunteer Ambulance Corps in the 1970s and said he “used to make plenty of runs down here to the emergency room in those days. It’s convenient, good for emergencies, and a must for Pascack Valley.”
His wife Kathryn graduated from Hackensack Hospital School of Nursing in 1941 and said she was thrilled to see HUMC take over the facility. “Now my hospital (HUMC) has come to Westwood and that’s the best thing that could’ve happened.”
Beyond the fanfare, free hotdogs, petitions, and placards, the overriding feeling of the day was a sense of relief; Pascack Valley has its emergency room back.
Megan Burrow’s e-mail address is burrow@northjersey.com.
This article originally appeared in Pascack Valley Community Life. Original Article is located here