In a page one story in Tuesday's Courier, Plainfield Assemblyman Jerry Green attacked the president of Muhlenberg's board of trustees, Ron West, calling for his replacement.
You need to read the story. Carefully.
Here we have a player (the Assemblyman) who has been intimately involved with Muhlenberg and Solaris Health Systems over many, many years. And a board president, Ron West, who has yet to serve his first full year.
The financial difficulties that threaten to overwhelm the hospital are not news to careful observers, and certainly not news to Assemblyman Jerry Green.
After all, when he was a vice president for the Alman Group, one of his clients was Solaris Health Systems. (Was he lobbying? Is he a registered lobbyist? Interesting questions.) He is intimately aware of Solaris' and Muhlenberg's needs.
Years ago, hopes were placed in Muhlenberg's getting a 'certificate of need' for cardiac surgery. That process which, in spite of having a medical gloss to it, was political from beginning to end -- the end being that the Assemblyman's mojo failed to deliver the hoped-for outcome to Muhlenberg and the application was denied. Even though -- and I was told this by a participant -- Muhlenberg was held to have made the best and most compelling presentation by all the hospitals vying for the limited number of licenses.
This meant the handwriting was on the wall as much as seven or eight years ago, and Assemblyman Jerry Green was deeply involved -- not Ron West, who has been chair of Muhlenberg's board for less than a year.
Next, the Assemblyman swooped in from left field with a proposal to use Schools Construction Corporation funding set aside for the Abbott schools to build a new school on the Muhlenberg campus. (This, in spite of the fact that a community task force organized by the state and with the Assemblyman's blessing, recommended a new school needed to be sited in the West End.)
Sweeping aside the task force's conclusion, Assemblyman Green conducted a strenuous public relations effort to bring a $100M school project (his figure) to the hospital site. The scheme ultimately collapsed, when the monies available shrank to the point Muhlenberg would not be significantly helped and a more realistic assessment of the site did not favor the placement of a school there.
Now that the crisis has come to a head, the Assemblyman is attempting to throw the blame on Ron West, accusing him of not supporting the effort to keep the hospital open.
You may be forgiven if you are a little confused by Assemblyman Green's effort to portray himself as both a leader in the struggle to keep the hospital open and chief embalmer of the still-living body in setting up his 'community task force' -- which, after all, is only about CLOSING, not SAVING, the hospital.
There is something the Assemblyman could do, though. Something that no one else can do. Assemblyman Jerry Green, who will have to sign off on closing Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center, could stand up tall and say he simply will not do it. That he will not put his John Hancock to anything to do with closing Muhlenberg, and that the state would have to close it over his objection.
Or, as people often say, 'over my dead body'.
Now, that would be a man of courage, a man to admire.
- Courier: "Green calls for chairman's resignation"
-- Dan Damon
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