Deadly delays feared when hospital shuts
Sunday, September 30, 2007

By BOB GROVES
STAFF WRITER


Pascack Valley Hospital's closing will force residents in the area to travel farther to get to a hospital – miles and minutes that can mean the difference between life and death in an emergency, say worried officials in surrounding towns.

"In time of an emergency, seconds count," said Louis Lamatina, mayor of Emerson. "It will have a devastating impact on our town. When you have an emergency, that's when the absence of a local hospital will be most felt. That's when you need the comfort of a hospital right there."

Staggering under more than $100 million in debt, Pascack Valley is bankrupt and hospital officials announced last week that it will close by Dec. 4. Some services have already ceased at the hospital in Westwood.

Its closing means that residents who used to travel just a few minutes in an emergency will have to go 20 minutes or more to the nearest hospital. Those who live along the winding roads of the Pascack Valley say it can take even longer at rush hour or in bad weather.

"It's 30 minutes to get to Valley Hospital in Ridgewood from my house -- if I speed. That's too long," said Alice Mayer, a Norwood resident. "My mother's been ill and she's been in and out of the hospital a lot. What happens if we can't get her to a doctor in time?"

Westwood Mayor Thomas D. Wanner has been inundated with calls from residents with such worries. He is angry that the hospital is closing – and anxious for his constituents.

"People say it's only an extra minute here and there, but that's not a viable excuse," he said. "It could be a matter of life and death."

For 50 years, Pascack has served residents of more than a dozen municipalities in the valley as well as some residents across the border in Rockland County. When it closes, the nearest hospitals for many residents will be The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and Nyack Hospital in Rockland. Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, and Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck as well as Hackensack University Medical Center and Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus are also likely to pick up some of the patient load.

But a trip to Ridgewood, or other hospitals, can take more than twice as long as one to Westwood because there are no major highways and many of the roads meander through towns and around the reservoirs.

The grim situation worries Donald M. Genaro, chairman of the Pascack Valley Hospital Association Inc.

He had a heart attack in 1993, and got to Pascack Valley from his Haworth home in eight minutes. "How long is it going to take me, with these roads, to get to Englewood or Valley -- even with a cavalcade of sirens? That's what worries me the most," he said. If only they could have kept an ER going with some observation beds, he said.

Ambulance drivers are also concerned about getting patients the help they need in time.

"We've been living in fear of this the past few months," said Marion Roe, captain of the Tri-boro Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which serves Park Ridge, Montvale and Woodcliff Lake. "Our run times [to other hospitals] will increase ridiculously."

The longer drives will mean that ambulances will be out of their towns and out of service longer. The average round-trip ambulance run from Washington Township to Pascack Valley -- including the time it takes to process a patient at the emergency room -- is 55 minutes to an hour and 10 minutes, said Bill Kroepke of the township's volunteer ambulance corps. A run to hospitals in Ridgewood, Hackensack or Englewood would keep the ambulance out of service for 90 minutes.

"No doubt about it, there's going to be an impact," said Kroepke, who has been driving ambulances for 39 of his 67 years. He is president of the Pascack Valley Volunteer Ambulance Association, which represents 21 towns.

At a time when ambulance corps are struggling to attract and keep volunteers, Roe worries that the added stress will drive away EMTs. "Closing Pascack Valley "will be a horrible thing," she said.

It's not just the emergency situations that have officials and residents nervous. The shuttering of Pascack Valley means the loss of 280 beds and many other medical services, such as those for rehabilitation and patients with pacemakers.

Those patients, too, will have to travel farther -- and both officials and residents say they worry whether the other hospitals can absorb that many patients.

"We'll see increased traffic to these other hospitals, which will put an increased demand on the infrastructure," Wanner said. While these hospitals might be happy to have extra clients, it won't serve residents of Pascack Valley, he said. At full capacity, Pascack Valley Hospital could provide 106,000 patient days' worth of service per year, he said.

Many of the mayors as well as some religious groups have been talking about banding together in the hopes of finding a way to resurrect the hospital. But hospital officials have said there is no hope.

"There's a real risk for everybody," said Victor Polce, mayor of Old Tappan. "We need to find a solution."

Staff Writer Lindy Washburn contributed to this article. E-mail: groves@northjersey.com


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