St Mary’s Hospital

New Jersey never ceases to be an interesting place to live. It was announced last week that St. Mary’s Hospital in Hoboken would be closed at the end of the year unless a buyer was found. The hospital was founded in 1863 and is currently owned by Bon Secours Health Care System.

From the Hoboken Reporter:

Bon Secours, a Catholic health care system based in Marriottsville, Md., bought St. Mary Hospital in 2000. In 2001, Bon Secours formed a partnership with Canterbury Health, the company that owns Christ Hospital in Jersey City.

But that doomed union dissolved on Dec. 31, 2004 after Canterbury alleged the Bon Secours did not disclose the true financial health of St. Francis in Jersey City and St. Mary.

According to the Star-Ledger:

A deal between UMDNJ and Bon Secours — which had been in the works for more than a year — fell flat after a federal monitor was appointed to oversee UMDNJ, where trustees admitted defrauding Medicare and Medicaid of more than $4.9 million.

So the company that was going to take over the hospital had some of its own troubles. But the story is made more interesting in that Bon Secours had also bought St. Francis Hospital in Jersey City, which has already been sold off to a condo developer. I heard from talking to some Hoboken natives that all the trouble started when St. Mary’s got into a financial partnership with another hospital in Jersey City but got tangled into their financial mess and got dragged down. So it could be that a single bad business decision doomed the Hoboken landmark.

Phat Friends Awards

Spent an enjoyable evening on Tuesday at a charity dinner for the 2005 Phat Friends Awards. This is one of the activities run by the All Stars Project, a charity my company is very active with. A bit of background:

The All Stars Project, Inc. (ASP) is a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting human development through the use of an innovative performance and development based model.

The ASP creates outside of school, educational and performing arts activities for tens of thousands of poor and minority young people. It sponsors community and experimental theatre, develops leadership training and pursues volunteer initiatives that build and strengthen communities. The ASP actively promotes supplementary education and the performance learning model in academic and civic arenas.

It’s a great organization that includes a great bunch of modivated, smart and creative young people. I met some at the dinner and we have had a few working as interns.