East Orange Hospital Bought By For-Profit Company; ‘Historic’ Future Planned

EAST ORANGE, NJ — A for-profit company is purchasing East Orange General Hospital, administrators announced Friday.

The New Jersey State Health Planning Board has signed off on the sale, which is still awaiting official approval from New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli.

According to hospital administrators, the new owner, EOH Acquisition Group LLC, is led by Paige Dworak, who will be the first female owner/CEO of a hospital in New Jersey. Dworak has served as CEO of the 201-bed, acute care Essex County hospital since 2017 and will have a 20 percent ownership stake in the new organization.

Dworak said the change in ownership will speed up the “transformation” of the medical center, which is currently Essex County’s only independent, acute care community hospital, and is the largest private employer in East Orange.

“This is a great day for the residents of Essex County,” Dworak said. “We are so excited about the future of this historic hospital and its impact on the community.”

In addition to Dworak, other owners of EOH Acquisition Group include attorney Troy Schell and Ben Klein, an Englewood resident who owns more than three dozen behavioral health and substance abuse treatment centers across the U.S.

Hospital administrators said the new owners plan to commit capital funds to “retain new staff, invest in new technology and expand services to better meet the community’s needs.” The hospital will also “deepen its focus” on behavioral health and expand outpatient mental health services on its campus, integrating mental health services and primary care and removing the silos that typically exist between these two service lines.

The new owners also plan to oversee the completion of several initiatives currently underway, and embark on new projects at the hospital. They include:

• Completion of the opening of the county’s first inpatient Substance Abuse Disorder (Detox) Unit.
• Creation of a new 100+ bed residential substance abuse disorder treatment center which will provide a much-needed service to the county, create new jobs, and drive new admissions.
• Creation of East Orange General Hospital’s first-ever Medical Group focused on the expansion of primary care, family medicine, and multispecialty services.
• Addition of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a technology used to treat and cure depression, anxiety and more.

Dworak acknowledged that there has been “much skepticism” surrounding the hospital in recent years.

The hospital’s current safety grade from The Leapfrog Group is a “D” – which it has maintained since spring 2019. It scored an “F” grade from the advocacy group in fall of 2018.

But according to Dworak, there are plans to “build a better, stronger community hospital” in the months and years ahead.

“We’re excited to bring ownership back to New Jersey – to people who are truly vested and care,” Dworak added. “I’m invested in this community, and I’m honored to continue to serve the residents of Essex County as an owner of this historic institution.”

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