N.J. hospital says it can’t pay employees, must close after 152 years
Taken from NJ.com
By Jackie Roman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
November 14, 2025
A Jersey City hospital will close its doors after 152 years of service after failing to get millions in support from the government, its parent company announced Friday.
Heights University Hospital will operate only as a standalone emergency department and support services starting on Saturday, said Dr. Nizar Kifaieh, president and chief executive officer of Hudson Regional Health.
The news, announced at a press conference, was not entirely a surprise. Hudson Regional, which owns the hospital, announced in October that it would begin to lay off staff and wind down services. As of Friday, just five patients remained in the hospital, said Kifaieh.
Hudson Regional has been strapped for cash.
Just seven months after Hudson Regional took over Heights University Hospital from CarePoint Health System, which had its own share of problems, the company made a public appeal for financial support.
On Friday, Kifaieh said that critical funding failed to materialize and the hospital will close.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get commitment from the governor’s office regarding funding for such an endeavor and we are where we are here today,” said Kifaieh.
Gov. Phil Murphy’s office directed questions to the state health department. A spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Health said Friday that good faith efforts were made to support Heights Hospital, including $2 million in October to assist with payroll and prevent closure.
“Despite all of these efforts, Hudson Regional Hospital has failed to fund their payroll this week and failed to fully perform as it represented in its Plan of Restructuring, which was approved by the Bankruptcy Court as a condition of exiting bankruptcy. And it has not followed through on its commitments to the community it serves and to the State to turn things around after taking over the hospital,” said Dalya Ewais, a spokeswoman with state Department of Health, in a statement.
Kifaieh said Hudson Regional has been trying hard to keep the hospital open and has pumped $300 million into operations, with a major portion dedicated to Heights University Hospital. Despite that investment, the hospital is losing $1.5 million per week.
“We believe that we put a lot of effort during this past year to make something out of what we have here, the unfortunate situation that we’re in financially. But again, we got to a point where we just could not,” said Kifaieh.
The hospital will continue to operate a standalone emergency department and provide other health care services out of its auxiliary building. The areas where there are no services will be shut down.
Employees at Heights Hospital also learned Thursday night about a delay in processing payroll and were notified that paychecks scheduled for Friday will be delayed.
In an email, employees were told the “delay is due to insufficient financial support from the State of New Jersey, along with severely constrained cash flow.”
The employees’ union, a local of Health Professionals and Allied Employees, said Hudson Regional has surpassed CarePoint as the worst employer in Hudson County.
“Hudson Regional has made this decision illegally with no regard for Department of Health regulations or the WARN Act. What will happen to the patients in this community? Their employees have been left without a paycheck for two weeks of work and without future employment,” union president Debbie White said in a statement Friday.