Unable to reach consensus, members lean toward keeping hospital open Watch video
Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital in Glen Gardener.GLEN GARDNER — Closing the Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital in Glen Gardner was all but a foregone conclusion for Gov. Chris Christie’s administration last spring.
But when Sen. Michael Doherty (R-Warren) threatened to withhold his vote for the state budget to protect the hospital and its 730 jobs in his district, Christie agreed to form a task force to study whether it was good policy to close the only state-run psychiatric hospital specializing in treating senior citizens.
In its final report to be sent to the governor and lawmakers this week, the task force will say it “was unable to reach consensus” on keeping open or closing Hagedorn. But many of the recommendations in the report, obtained by The Star-Ledger, strongly lean toward closing the hospital and finding ways to do that by the administration’s original goal of June 2012.
Doherty and the other lawmakers appointed to the task force are not happy with the report, and say they heard nothing in three public hearings and four private meetings that made them change their minds. They charge the fix was in to close Hagedorn.
In a rare move, the lawmakers called for the task force to vote, and on Friday official members favored keeping Hagedorn open, 10-3 with four abstentions, said Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex), a task force member.
The task force voted a second time, allowing unofficial members who work for Human Services participate. That vote — 10-7 with four abstentions — also favored keeping the hospital open.
But the text of the report will stay the same, Diegnan said.
“This was nothing more than a process to conclude how to close down Hagedorn rather than whether to close down Hagedorn,” he said. “The report is obviously a recommendation from staff, but when you have a 10-3 vote, clearly the members of the committee do not accept that recommendation.”
Doherty wrote a letter to Human Services Commissioner Jennifer Velez stating he was “highly dissatisfied with (the report’s) content and clear bias toward closure.”
Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex), another task force member, questioned the autonomy of the task force, led by Velez, whose team developed the idea to close Hagedorn. He and others noted several task force members work for agencies that hold Human Services contracts, suggesting their views may be compromised.
Velez and the other task force members, including those holding contracts, declined comment until the report is delivered.
Some Hagedorn supporters on the task force offered an alternative: closing most of Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, a facility serving almost twice as many patients as Hagedorn, including many who have committed crimes, according to the report. The Ann Klein Forensic Center, a separate unit on the Trenton campus housing the most dangerous patients, would expand to accept other patients who committed crimes, the report said. Elderly patients housed at other hospitals would be transferred to Hagedorn.
But closing Trenton was not as appealing as closing Hagedorn for several reasons, according to the report written by department officials on the task force. “The entire state hospital system would need to be reconfigured and would impact every county in the state,” the report said.
“Such a reorganization would require more extensive planning and cannot be done in the same one-year time frame proposed for closing Hagedorn.”
The law creating the task force said it should evaluate whether closing Hagedorn would meet the state’s objectives of saving money, uphold a U.S. Supreme Court mandate that people with disabilities live in the least-restrictive place as safely possible, and ensure enough beds to serve geriatric patients.
Many of the report’s recommendations focused on life after Hagedorn. The authors, for example, said Freedom House, a substance abuse rehabilitation center on its campus, should remain, and Hagedorn’s North Hall should be leased to nonprofit organizations serving senior citizens with mental illnesses.
After being evaluated, Hagedorn patients would be moved to smaller group housing or another state hospital. The task force said it would not consider sending them to nursing homes.
Human Services officials have said the state would save $9 million in the fiscal year beginning July 1, and $44 million annually beginning next July. They estimate similar savings for closing Trenton, according to the report.
But Codey said the department has been siphoning patients away from Hagedorn for the past year in an attempt to drive up per-patient costs to justify closing the facility.
But state Human Services spokeswoman Pam Ronan said that trend actually began in 2007 when the state decided to direct patients from Warren and Sussex counties to Greystone Park in Parsippany instead of Hagedorn “as part of managing resources as efficiently as possible.”
Average annual admissions at Hagedorn dropped from 39 in fiscal year 2007 to 16 this year, she said, adding there were 246 patients there in December.
Some people fighting to save Hagedorn include vocal opponents to New Jersey’s reliance on housing patients in institutions. Last spring, the state chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness noted its “strong opposition” to shuttering a facility “with a very positive reputation” for caring for geriatric patients.
The alliance’s executive director, Sylvia Axelrod, is on the task force but declined comment.
Carolyn Beauchamp, president of the Mental Health Association in New Jersey and a task force member, said her group supports eventually closing all state institutions, “but only when there are adequate resources” to replace them. She would not discuss the task force’s work until the final report is submitted.
Relatives of patients fiercely defend the hospital overlooking Round Valley in the Highlands, saying its work force understands the medical and psychiatric problems of the elderly patients.
Codey, who as governor six years ago created a mental health task force that recommended the state create more alternatives to large hospitals, sees Hagedorn as an exception.
“I’ve always said we are always going to see state psychiatric hospitals because there is a percentage of the mentally ill population who are not fit to be within the community. That population needs to be taken care of in state hospitals,” he said.
Diegnan said the final decision is Christie’s.
“He has to deal with balancing the budget,” he said. “But this is a not a cost-effective action. I know he has a heart.”