I think stories like these are going to be really shocking NJ. My first son was born at this hospital, and I cannot believe they are closing their doors. They claim part of the reason is undocument patients!

This is quite alarming.

Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center shutting its doors

by Mariam Jukaku and Angela Stewart/The Star-Ledger
Saturday February 23, 2008, 4:15 PM

Frank Conlon/The Star-Ledger

The main entrance at Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield.Faced with mounting deficits caused mainly by insufficient state aid to cover all its uninsured patients, officials at Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield plan to close the 130-year-old facility later this year.

The hospital plans to file formal papers with the state Department of Health and Senior Services on March 1 seeking the closure. If approved, programs and services will be phased out during a "wind down" period before Muhlenberg finally stops admitting patients, officials said Friday.

The decision to close the 396-bed Plainfield hospital was a "last resort" after an attempt to find a buyer failed, said John P. McGee, president and CEO of Solaris Health System, which owns the hospital. Muhlenberg, which also has 1,100 employees and 350 affiliated physicians, was put up for sale last November. Officials say they reached out to more than 60 potential buyers.

McGee said one reason for the lack of interest is economics: Muhlenberg will likely show a loss of $18 million for 2007.

The hospital - whose emer gency room treats 35,000 patients a year - doled out some $15.4 million in uncompensated care last year, but received only $6.2 million from the state in charity care funding, spokesman Steven Weiss said.

Muhlenberg has also been treating a growing number of uninsured patients as well as undocumented patients, most of whom are not insured and do not qualify for charity care, he said.

Once it closes, the hospital plans to maintain, at least temporarily, a satellite emergency room with limited services. Plans also call for the nursing school to re main open, although some change in accreditation will be required.

A home care service the hospital jointly operates with its sister facility, JFK Medical Center in Edison, will continue to function. Muhlenberg merged with JFK in 1997 to form the Solaris Health System.

Read more in Saturday's Star-Ledger.


COMMENTS (41)Post a comment
Posted by ironbound1 on 02/23/08 at 10:30AM

I can only wonder who the majority of the uninsured are. How many Hospitals need to close before we wake up America?
Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by mom07002 on 02/23/08 at 10:36AM

How many hospitals are going to close under Corzine's rule???




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related article:

This hospital is 130 years old.

http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/in ... xml&coll=1