A hospital labor union official is accusing the New Jersey Department of Health of failing to hold the for-profit Secaucus, N.J.-based Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center accountable for violating state regulations, according to a NJ Spotlight report.
The Health Professionals and Allied Employees union, which represents nurses, technicians and service workers at the hospital, has demanded for several years that the state take stricter action against the hospital, following Meadowlands' conversion from a nonprofit to a for-profit, according to the report. The union has also demanded that the state appoint a manager to oversee Meadowlands, a call that was renewed this week by HPAE Chief of Staff Jeanne Otersen. "I think the fines are a continuing and clear indication that the Department of Health is unable to hold Meadowlands Hospital accountable to the standards it sets for every other hospital in New Jersey," Ms.Otersen said in the report.
New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Mary E. O'Dowd denied those claims in the report, saying the state's oversight of Meadowlands has been intense and that a number of fines against the hospital have set a precedent for future enforcement actions. According to the report, the state recently fined the hospital for failing to file audited financial statements for both 2012 and 2013. The total of both the original fines and additional penalties for slow responses has reached $92,000, the report reads. The 2014 report also is overdue.
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According to the report, New Jersey has made tried to recoup the fines by taking money out of the state Medicaid payments to the hospital.
Hospital spokesman Alfred Gaburo told NJ Spotlight that hospital executives intend to file both overdue audited financial statements by the end of summer, after the hospital straightened out technology "systems issues" which had prevented accurate filings.
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