Updated: Emergency Department at Heights Hospital to Close Saturday Night
Taken from the Jersey City Times
February 26, 2026
The union that represents nurses at Heights University Hospital has been told that the emergency department — the hospital’s last remaining department — will close by Saturday at 7:30 p.m. If that happens, all medical services will cease at the institution, formerly known as Christ Hospital, for the first time since its founding in 1872.
Rumors began circulating late Wednesday that a full closure of Heights University Hospital might be imminent. By Thursday morning, a spokesman for Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) President Debbie White said he could “confirm” that their members were warned of impending layoffs and an emergency department closure this weekend.
HPAE is the largest union of registered nurses and other health care professionals in New Jersey. Nurses at Heights University Hospital are among their members.
Last November, the hospital closed several departments, and remaining patients were transferred to other facilities in Jersey City and Hoboken. The emergency department stayed open, however, and Hudson Regional Health, the hospital’s owner, assured residents that the department would remain.
“We’ve made the commitment to continue, and aim to operate, a standalone emergency department, which … operates today, and we’ll continue to operate into the future,” Hudson Regional Health Chief of Staff Adam Alonso said at a Nov. 14 press conference. That was the day the remainder of the hospital closed.
Late Wednesday, HPAE circulated an email to its members asking them to contact Gov. Mikie Sherrill and “New Jersey policymakers” to save the hospital from closure. The timing was notable since HPAE had not raised alarms about the hospital’s circumstances since the fall.
The email read, in part, “Many of you have taken action to save [the] hospital from being replaced with luxury housing. This fight continues, but this time our voices need to be heard in Trenton. The new operator, Hudson Regional Health … submitted their application to the New Jersey Department of Health to permanently close the hospital.”
It is now apparent HPAE was responding to information from its members that Hudson Regional Health plans to completely close the hospital by March 1.