Muhlenberg hearing puts more pressure on state

Streetside rally before the hearing

Plainfield High School's auditorium was jammed with over a thousand people again on Thursday evening for the State Health Planning Board's second hearing on Solaris' application for a Certificate of Need to close Muhlenberg hospital.

Thankfully, the chairperson extended the meeting from its original 6-8 PM to restore to the public the time taken away from it by Assemblyman Green's prefatory remarks.

Speaker after speaker hammered away at points that need to be resolved by the Health Planning Board in making its recommendation to Commissioner Heather Howard --

• The proposed closure does NOT meet the state's OWN GUIDELINES for hospital closures;
• Not enough time is being given to potential buyers to put their deals together;
• Impact assessments -- on both health-related and economic effects -- have not been done;
• How will Solaris' commitment to 3-years for the ER and some other services be adjusted, since it does not meet the requirement of EIGHT YEARS set by guidelines;
  
• Would a 'right-sized' (i.e., smaller, but still acute-care) facility be workable?
• Can Muhlenberg's license be kept 'active' while a new owner is found and a rationale takes shape?
  

The advisory commission can recommend to Ms. Howard that the CoN be granted to Solaris as requested, granted WITH CONDITIONS, or denied.

Waving signs in agreement with speakers.

I think people had a sense of hope after last evening's hearing that the advisory group was not going to simply RUBBERSTAMP the Solaris application. That is a good thing.

But the fact remains that Solaris IS WINDING DOWN OPERATIONS at Muhlenberg AS IF the CoN is being granted.

Many staff have already left. Many operations have already been transferred to JFK.

Without a doubt, what will remain after June 15 is pretty much what Solaris hoped to achieve -- a very stripped-down facility.

Great anger was expressed by the crowd at two points:

1. The so-called 'Trinitas solution' to the issue of where babies of the Health Center's clients will be delivered (as you know, neither JFK nor Somerset MC want them delivered there!); and
   
   
2. The repeated -- and to me, new -- assertion that large numbers of angioplasty referrals were NOT made by JFK to Muhlenberg. A couple of doctors said that the lost referrals would have amounted to $10 million or more in income.

Will the road from Plainfield to Trinitas become a 'trail of tears' as pregnant women in labor use NJT's #57 bus or taxis to attempt to get to a hospital in time to deliver? The 800 pregnant women being considered today are only the tip of the iceberg. Large numbers of low-income pregnant women who depend on the Health Center's clinics are a permanent feature of Plainfield's health needs situation. The public is not pleased with the proposed solution.

The matter of refusing angioplasty referrals to Muhlenberg should be looked into by the state. If true, it only gives more credence to the notion among Muhlenberg supporters that Solaris has 'cooked the books'. Solaris should come clean on this matter ASAP.

Olive Lynch, founder of 'Buy Muhlenberg'.

Where will things go? Only time will tell, but you can be sure of one thing: If not for the popular pressure exerted by all those who have rallied, marched, chanted, prayed, honked and testified, Solaris and Heather Howard would have had a walk in the park.

At the least, the state now feels great pressure not to appear to rush to a conclusion. And perhaps even to try to be 'rational' in its decision.

Will justice be done?

I guess that depends on what you think justice is and who is in a position to 'do' it.

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-- Dan Damon

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