Secaucus Hospital Owner Takes Over Bayonne Medical Center

SECAUCUS, NJ — Huge news for the owner of the Secaucus town hospital: On Tuesday, Hudson Regional announced it is taking over operations at Bayonne Medical Center.

Secaucus hospital owner Yan Moshe already owns the land on which Bayonne Medical Center sits, and the hospital building itself. This week is the first time Moshe will actually take over operations of the 136-year-old Bayonne hospital.

The hospital take-over was announced at 12 noon Tuesday in Bayonne, in a press conference attended by Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis, state Senator Angela McKnight and Hudson County Executive Craig Guy.

Moshe was also there, joined by his right-hand man, Hudson Regional CEO Dr. Nizar Kifaieh.

In late October, Moshe announced that Hudson Regional, Bayonne Medical Center, Hoboken University Medical Center and Christ Hospital will all come together under one roof and operate under the new name of Hudson Health System.

The takeover is not finalized: The state of New Jersey still has to sign off on it. A hearing on Hudson Regional’s application to become Bayonne’s permanent owner is scheduled for December 10.

Prior to this, Bayonne Medical Center, Hoboken University Medical Center and Christ Hospital were all owned by CarePoint. The three CarePoint hospitals are currently bankrupt; they declared bankruptcy in November.

Until now, Moshe and CarePoint clashed for years, and had a protracted legal battle as they fought for who would own the four Hudson County hospitals. However, it appears a peace has been made: In late October, this new partnership structure was approved by CarePoint's Board of Trustees. CarePoint CEO Dr. Achintya Moulick will direct the transition for CarePoint to fall under operational control of Hudson Health System, and he will work with Moshe and Dr. Kifaieh to integrate operations.

“Having four hospitals working together under one system creates the scale and geographic coverage required to provide premier services to the entire county," said Dr. Moulick.

“As the property owner and healthcare operator we are now in a position to assure stability of the hospital for the community,” said Moshe Tuesday. "Our combined decades of proven experience operating healthcare facilities and creating integrated systems will be an enormous benefit to the community as we create a new operating plan for Bayonne Medical Center.”

Hudson Regional Hospital already owns the Bayonne Medical Center property. Under the terms of the Oct. 30 agreement, Moshe said he can now "exercise exclusive options it has negotiated to acquire the Hoboken University Medical Center and Christ Hospital properties."

This will give Moshe control of both the land and operations at all four hospitals.

A spokesman for Yoshe said he plans to continue operating Hoboken University Medical Center and Christ Hospital as hospitals.

Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis said Tuesday of the takeover:

“This is the first time in maybe 25 or 30 years that I am confident that we have owners of Bayonne Hospital, and we are not going through this in another ten years from now again,” said Davis.

Now that he owns Bayonne Medical Center, Moshe plans to launch an ambitious capital improvement campaign there, including building a new entrance, lobby and cafe, building a new physical therapy space, building a new CATH lab, remodeling its ER and adding three more operating rooms.

“Similar to the work we did at Hudson Regional Hospital, we will transform Bayonne Medical Center into a modern, high-performing acute-care facility," said Dr. Kifaieh Tuesday.

Bayonne Medical Center is located at 29 East 29th Street in Bayonne.

Pictured, from left to right: Mike Koba, HRH Board of Directors; Justin Drew, Chief of Staff for CarePoint Health; John Reilly, HRH Board of Directors; Yan Moshe, HRH Chairman of the Board; Michael McCabe, McCabe Ambulance Service; Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis; NJ Assemblywoman Barbara Stamado; NJ Assemblywoman Angela McKnight; Dr. Nizar Kifaieh, President and CEO for HRH; Adam Alonso, Consultant for HRH; Rob Alon, Assistant Director of Operations.