Overflowing crowd voices support for local hospital

WANTAGE — There were 200 chairs set up for the public at the hearing Tuesday night on the potential closing of inpatient services at St. Clare's Sussex campus. It wasn’t nearly enough. Once those chairs were full people lined the walls, filled the hallways and squeezed in wherever they could find a spot in the Wantage School auditorium. The state certificate of need hearing had been well publicized and residents came out in force to voice their comments and concerns. After this meeting, the state board of health and senior services will have three options: approve the closing, approve the closing with exceptions or deny the closing. Everyone in the room with the exception of one person, it seemed, was in favor of keeping the Sussex campus open as it is now. The one person at the May 1 hearing was the first speaker of the night. Les Hirsch, president and CEO of St. Clare’s Health System, began the night of speeches by saying that he was “empathetic to the community's concern,” but the Sussex campus has been in financial distress since their merge with Catholic Health Initiatives in 2007. Due to “unsustainable financial losses,” Hirsch said, the hospital administration has no option but to close the inpatient medical facility, intensive care unit, operating room and ambulatory/same day surgery unit. He was quick to add that they “are not closing the hospital” — outpatient services such as the emergency department would remain open. Wave of opposition to plan Each speaker after Hirsch demonstrated why outpatient services at St. Clare’s Sussex wouldn’t be enough. One issue that many of the speakers brought up was that the certificate of need — the document that outlines why it would be OK to close the hospital — is “severely flawed.” Dr. John Fisher went as far as to say that if it weren’t such a serious matter, “the document would be laughable.” Dr. Sami Yasin used part of his three minutes to go further: “The Certificate of Need (CON) states that the population can get from Vernon to Newton in only six minutes more than it would take them to get to Sussex.” He went on to say that he tried the route they suggested this past week and it took him much longer than six minutes — the trip was closer to a half hour longer. Vernon attorney James Opfer joked that his business would certainly increase when people got speeding tickets trying to make it to Newton in the time the CON stated they could. In all seriousness he added: “The travel time is amazingly skewed.” He also said: “The committee doesn’t have a complete and accurate report in order to make this important decision.” Time is a concern The other main concern of the night was the extra time it would take for patients in need of help to get to a hospital other than Sussex. Whether it’s a half hour to Newton — plus however much extra time it takes to get into a bed, it was pointed out by St. Clares nurse Barbara Psaroudis — or 50 minutes to Denville, that is time that could be used to save a patient’s life. Dr. Farhad Idjadi gave three personal stories of lives he’s saved in the last five years of people who wouldn’t have made it if they had to travel farther than the Sussex campus: “There would be inevitable increases in patient mortality,” he said. Crowd support With the exception of Hirsch, every speaker of the night got a massive ovation for their support of the endangered hospital. The community was in a mood to rally for their local hospital and those 55 of its employees on the verge of losing their jobs. Retired doctor Linda Vickery quoted the mission statement found on St. Clares Web site that touts its core values of “reverence, integrity, compassion and excellence.” She exclaimed her disgust at the decision made by the hospital's administration to close the Sussex campus by saying that “St. Clare’s has not shown any respect, much less reverence, to the residents of Sussex County” in making this decision. What's next? The speeches are over. The public still has until May 11 to send letters voicing their concerns to the commission of health and senior services addressed to Mary E. Dowd, P.O. Box 360, Trenton, NJ 08625. The commissioner’s decision whether to close the hospital, keep it open or keep it open with exceptions will be announced shortly after that date.