Aronsohn Challenges Valley's Claimed Bed Count Needs

Despite years of lawsuits and public statements claiming Bergen County is beset with hundreds of unused hospital beds on a nightly basis, Valley Hospital says the reopening of a competitor will not change its own expansion needs. 

Challenged by Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn over what he called "inconsistencies" in Valley's position on bed needs, the hospital Monday night argued the medical needs of an aging population will offset any losses in market share to 128-bed HackensackUMC at Pascack Valley in Westwood.

Citing algebraic projections on demographics, Valley Hospital planning expert John Downes, of Stroudwater Associates, testified that Valley would need to increase its bed count from 451 beds to 485 beds had the Westwood hospital not received the go-ahead from the state. Assuming that the 1,800 annual inpatient discharges Valley picked up in the years Pascack went dormant all returned to Westwood, Valley would still need 452 beds, Downes said.

"While the population of The Valley Hospital’s service area is expected to remain relatively flat, the population of those 65 and older – the largest consumers of hospital resources – is expected to account for 77.8% of population growth, growing by 10.8% from 2012 to 2017," Downes said.

Valley is before the Ridgewood Planning Board requesting a Master Plan amendment to increase its hospital floor space by 77 percent, with an additional parking garage. The overall expansion would double the size of Valley's facilities, creating private rooms for 454 beds.

But according to Aronsohn, the purported need appears at odds with expensive litigation Valley waged to keep Pascack Valley shuttered.

The mayor, who voted against Valley's last expansion proposal, noted the hospital's requested bed count remains the same today as it was in 2007, despite Pascack reopening in June of 2013. He pointed to documents he said appeared to contradict Valley's positions.

In opposing the certificate of need request of the Westwood Hospital, Valley issued a statement in Feb. 2012 stating that "The latest numbers show that there will be no increase in demand for health care, and a new hospital will only hurt existing hospitals."

Further, in Dec. 2012 it argued in court that while HUMC projected a 37.7 percent growth in the senior population, it did not account for the population of those under 65 to shrink by 5.9 percent from 2008 to 2028.

On Monday, Valley attorney Jonathan Drill said the hundreds of open beds that remain in Bergen County are from Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck and Englewood Hospital. Valley's needs are not affected by those figures, he said.

Drill also pointed to a letter issued by state health commissioner Mary E. O'Dowd on April 25 which stated that the reopening of the Westwood Hospital will absorb the spillover patients from HUMC at Hackensack.

O'Dowd said the certificate of occupancy she granted to HUMC-Pascack in no way meant beds should be reduced at other existing hospitals in the area.

"Any suggestions that any other Bergen County hospital should eliminate beds solely because of the pending opening of HPV is not supported by the data used in the CN review process for HPV and would clearly upset the balanced hospital system that I strived to achieve with my decision," O'Dowd wrote.