Hudson Regional Health (HRH) CEO and President Dr. Nizar Kifaieh insists that Heights University Hospital can reopen with the right support, claiming that not everyone has the facts on the situation straight.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
In an interview at an unrelated ribbon cutting Wednesday, Kifaieh said that HRH no longer wants to keep HUH permanently closed, which occurred on March 14th, and currently in the process of exploring alternatives including relocating and reopening the hospital.
“For us, the [certificate of need] application is withdrawn as we speak. So there’s no need for a meeting. If there’s no application, then there’s no need for a meeting to hear people talk about a closure. There is no application in. We don’t want to pursue it,” Kifaieh stated.
HRH attorney Mandelbaum Barrett PC partner Alexis Goldberger to wrote a letter to Certificate of Need and Healthcare Facility Licensure Program Executive Director Michael Kennedy Monday night withdrawing their CN application.
The hearing was originally scheduled to take place at the community room at the hospital Wednesday night, but was moved to Dickinson High School after HRH refused to allow the meeting to move forward in the original location.
While the NJDOH rejected the request, HRH successfully cancelled Wednesday’s CN application after Hudson County Superior Court Judge Anthony D’Elia granted a court injunction, as HCV first reported.
The interview with Kifaieh took place prior to the injunction being filed.
Officials slammed HRH for trying to cancel a meeting controlled by the state, noting that the legally required hearing was supposed to happen before the hospital closed.
“We’re trying to be good citizens. At the same time, we want to make sure that we’re being responsible in terms of providing good health care in the community,” Kifaieh declared.
Kifaieh reiterated that HRH is “exploring alternative solutions” to the permanent closure of Heights University Hospital, stating that they “understand the value” of having such a healthcare facility in the Heights and other parts of Jersey City.
According to Kifaieh, the issue is pressing since Jersey City Medical Center is currently “at capacity,” and Hoboken University Hospital has been getting busier.
“We’d love to find an alternative solution aside from just the hospital being shut down: We’d love to have an alternate facility in the Heights.”
Further, Kifaieh said that part of the financial problem at Heights hospital was that there was “no upkeep” under past ownership by CarePoint Health, citing the $104 million in losses from operating HRH in the past year since they acquired the hospital through a bankruptcy proceeding in April 2025.
He claimed that the cost of maintaining the facility was “almost as much as building a new hospital.”
“Because of the financial distress at the old Christ Hospital, we had no choice but to suspend services,” Kifaieh said.
Nonetheless, the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) unions insists that HRH had assured the courts and state regulators that they had the plan and the financial wherewithal to buy the three hospitals without issue during bankruptcy proceedings.
That clearly was not the case, and the NJDOH first stated in a letter that “HRH cannot simply close a hospital overnight,” back in September after Heights University Hospital’s financial woes went public.
Just before that, HRH announced it would suspend non-essential services at the hospital, all but the Emergency Department, but by November HRH said it had no choice but to plan the closure of Heights University Hospital, citing the aforementioned operating losses.
While the facility was set to close in late February, the inevitable was delayed by two weeks due to public outcry from electeds and residents alike.
When the state didn’t take up local officials ask for a legal injunction to stop the hospital closure, the city attempted their own “Hail Mary” in the courts to no avail.
“Once we started suspending services, the Department of Health basically asked us to file a CN application for closure, so we felt like we had no choice but to do that,” Kifaieh recalled.
Now, Kifaieh insisted they are searching for alternatives, remaining hopeful that the NJDOH “with some influence from the higher ups in the state” will see things the way HRH does “and try to support us.”
“I do appreciate all of our elected officials and how they all lobby for a good healthcare system in the area, but that also involves creating an alternative healthcare delivery system,” he said.
Following the closure of the hospital, the Jersey City Council approved resolutions exploring the process of seizing the land through eminent domain, though Eisenreich’s involvement makes this option a complicated one.
According to Kifaieh, not all elected officials “have the entire story correct,” encouraging them to reach out to HRH for the facts.
“It would be very easy for us to just accept the closure and be done: We’re trying to find an alternative solution and I would encourage them to try and support us now.”
