Thoughts on Valley Hospital Expansion

As someone who used to live in Ridgewood (over 30 years ago) I do know something of the layout of Valley Hospital and can understand how, after repeated expansions over these last 30 years, some people might be saying enough is enough.

To my way of thinking there are four options to consider:

1. Allow further expansion on the current site. I haven't seen the plans and will only say that the area which Valley occupies is looking fully developed to my untrained eye.

2. Disallow further expansion on the current site. The common wisdom as I understand it is that hospitals need to be big to establish their reputations, to attract the best professionals to work within them, and to provide the most modern care to their patients. Putting an end to expansion might fly in the face of this common wisdom. Only time would tell.

3. Close Valley Hospital. This is ridiculous but I have seen a hospital closed in my neighborhood in Forest Hills because it was not big enough and had no room to expand or modernize. I wouldn't wish this on Ridgewood for anything.

4. Build a Valley Hospital Annex on another site. According to reports this is what is currently going on in the background of this discussion on expansion. Valley Hospital according to North Jersey.com:

"is in the process of acquiring the Community Blood Services building in Paramus, where it plans to provide treatment and cardiac rehab as well as conduct research, hospital officials confirmed."

If you know this site as I do then you might see the possibilities for the building of an annex. It would require tearing down an old shopping mall and some zoning variances to build a true hospital, though it would give Valley Hospital all the room it needed. The biggest issue the hospital would then face is who would initially have to work in the new facility. At the moment they are moving some rehabilitation and research down to the Community Blood Services building. If and when further expansion commenced there would certainly be plenty of internal fighting at Valley Hospital as to who has to move. This is fairly common in all types of business when an expansion is proposed. The inevitable result is some people won't feel like they are in the loop when they have to work at the Annex and will find the commute to be inconvenient, especially in a snow or rain storm.

One last observation: it almost looks to me that the people who favor expansion are throwing in the towel by this acquisition of the Community Blood Services building in Paramus and know that they can't win a fight to expand at the current location.