Hudson Regional Health emailed the Jersey City Council on Tuesday morning to say the April 15 public hearing on its certificate of need application would be postponed indefinitely. Within hours, the New Jersey Department of Health overruled the move. The hearing at the shuttered Heights University Hospital, NJDOH said, will go forward as scheduled, and the commissioner personally denied HRH’s request for a delay.
- The NJDOH commissioner personally denied HRH’s postponement request, citing N.J.S.A. 26:2H-5.8, which requires the hearing to occur by April 19 — leaving no time to reschedule and still meet the two-week public notice rule.
- The April 15 hearing at 176 Palisade Avenue (5–7 p.m.) is the public’s first formal platform to address HRH’s certificate of need application since the hospital closed in November 2025 and the standalone ER shut down on March 14.
- A total of 967 Bayonne University Hospital employees received WARN layoff notices with a June 29 effective date, though HRH says the filings are a legal formality triggered by an ownership transfer, not planned job cuts.
The State’s Reasoning for Denying the Postponement
NJDOH spokeswoman Claudia Trani-Melgar told HCV the department learned about HRH’s email through local elected officials and immediately corrected the record. She confirmed that HRH had contacted the commissioner directly, and that the commissioner said the hearing “could not be postponed.”
The denial was grounded in N.J.S.A. 26:2H-5.8, which requires the State Health Planning Board to hold a public hearing within 30 days of a certificate of need application being deemed complete, with at least two weeks of advance public notice. HRH’s application was deemed complete on March 20, 2025, setting a deadline of April 19, 2025. Trani-Melgar said there was not enough time to reschedule at 176 Palisade Avenue and still satisfy the notice requirement.
Jersey City Council Members Respond
Ward C Councilman Tom Zuppa, who represents the Heights neighborhood where the hospital is located, called it a “delay tactic” and said residents’ “lives are at stake and they cannot wait.” He described the state’s inaction to date as a “slumber” that had let HRH carry out what he called “the systematic dismantling of that hospital.” He vowed to attend the hearing alongside Heights residents to press for a functioning hospital in their community.
Ward D Councilman Jake Ephros, who also represents part of the Heights, said his office would be “turning people out to the April 15th meeting” to make the “community’s voice heard.”
How Heights University Hospital Closed
Heights University Hospital — formerly Christ Hospital — was one of three facilities operated by CarePoint Health, a Hudson County nonprofit that also ran Bayonne University Hospital and Hoboken University Hospital. CarePoint filed for bankruptcy in November 2024 after accumulating $300 million in debt, putting half of the county’s six hospitals at risk.
In April 2025, a federal bankruptcy court judge confirmed CarePoint’s plan to exit bankruptcy and transferred control of all three hospitals to Hudson Regional Health, a Secaucus-based company. HRH said it had invested $300 million into operations, with a large portion going to the Heights campus. Less than six months later, HRH reported $104 million in total losses at the facility, blaming cuts to Medicaid and charity care, a growing number of uninsured patients and inadequate state funding.
Before the closure, the state stepped in with emergency aid. In October 2025, the NJDOH advanced nearly $2 million in charity care funding to prevent a disruption of services. A separate $2 million grant helped HRH meet payroll. Despite that assistance, HRH determined the facility could not avoid continued financial distress.
Heights University Hospital closed in November 2025. HRH continued operating a standalone emergency room at the site, but in February 2026 announced it would suspend that service too, projecting a $30 million loss for the year.
On March 14 — the day the standalone ER shut down — an emergency court injunction failed to keep the doors open. Activists organized a “die-in” at the hospital and two people were arrested. Municipal court records show both were charged with criminal trespassing, resisting arrest and obstruction, all classified as petty and disorderly offenses.
Eleven days later, on March 25, the Jersey City Council voted unanimously, 9–0, to direct the planning board to explore using eminent domain on the hospital property, which is owned by Alaris Health founder Avery Eisenreich.
PUBLIC HEARING DETAILS
The NJDOH hearing on HRH’s certificate of need application will take place in the community room at Heights University Hospital, 176 Palisade Avenue, Jersey City, on Wednesday, April 15, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. All members of the public are welcome. Additional information is available on the NJDOH website.
967 Bayonne Hospital Workers Receive WARN Notices
Three weeks after the Heights ER closure, a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filing with the New Jersey Department of Labor revealed that 967 employees at Bayonne University Hospital had received formal layoff notices with an effective date of June 29, 2026. No specific positions have been identified.
The WARN Act requires employers with 100 or more full-time workers to give affected staff at least 60 days’ notice before a plant closing or mass layoff. WARN notices often signal potential job cuts but HRH said that would not be the case in Bayonne this June.
Vijay Chaudhuri, vice president of community and external affairs at Hudson Regional Hospital, said the notices were triggered by “a transfer of ownership, license and operating business” as HRH completes its takeover of the former CarePoint facilities. He said HRH “has reassured staff” that the process is an ownership transition and that employees “will be transitioned to HRH’s new ownership.” Chaudhuri added that HRH had invested “tens of millions of dollars” over the past 15 months to improve care at Bayonne and remains committed to advancing it as “a premier acute-care facility in the tri-state region.” The company does not anticipate any layoffs in June.
HPAE Union Challenges HRH’s Assurances
The Health Professionals and Allied Employees, the union representing many of the affected Bayonne workers, rejected HRH’s framing. In a Monday statement, HPAE leadership accused the operator of issuing “over 900 layoff notices to every staff member” and said the move had sown “confusion in the Bayonne community and among healthcare workers.”
The union said it was “taking this threat very seriously” despite HRH’s claim that the filing was “merely a precautionary step during corporate restructuring.” HPAE described HRH as “an employer that refuses to follow law and has gone back on its word to workers, to the union and to the communities where its facilities operate several times over the past year.”
HPAE pointed to the closures of Christ Hospital — first the full facility in November 2025, then the standalone ER in March 2026 — as proof that HRH’s promises do not hold. Both closures, the union and local officials have claimed, were carried out illegally and remain the subject of ongoing efforts by Jersey City officials to keep services accessible to Heights residents.
Bayonne Officials React to the Layoff Notices
Former Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis, who has largely led the fight to keep Bayonne University Hospital open, said he believes HRH’s explanation but intends to watch whether anything changes. His principal concern has always been job losses, and he said the company has assured him none are planned.
Mary Jane Desmond, the only one of three mayoral candidates to respond publicly, said the notices should not have been sent at all. She told TAPinto Bayonne that hospital officials informed her the filings were sent “by mistake.” Desmond said HRH has already negotiated contracts with the union and absorbed existing employee agreements, and that “seniority and all other terms should remain safe.”
New Chief Hospital Executive Appointed in Bayonne
In March, Dr. Vijayant Singh became the new chief hospital executive at Bayonne University Hospital. He had served as Hudson Regional Hospital’s chief clinical officer and vice president of network development and was described as an integral part of the senior leadership team. He succeeded Dr. Michael Hochberg, who moved to the same role at Hoboken University Hospital.
Bayonne University Hospital is one of four Hudson County hospitals HRH took over from CarePoint Health in November 2024 as part of the bankruptcy resolution.
