SENATE, No. 168

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Senator KENNY

An Act providing for the designation of a children's hospital for Hudson County and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. a. The Commissioner of Health, subject to the provisions of subsection b. of this section, shall designate Jersey City Medical Center as the State's specialty acute care children's hospital for Hudson County.

    b. The designation by the Commissioner of Health pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall be made subsequent to, and shall be contingent upon, the execution of written transfer agreements between Jersey City Medical Center and the acute care hospitals providing inpatient pediatric services which are located in Hudson County.

    The written agreement shall state that the other facility recognizes Jersey City Medical Center as the State's specialty acute care children's hospital for Hudson County and shall set forth the basis on which the other facility shall make referrals to Jersey City Medical Center.

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill designates Jersey City Medical Center (JCMC) as the State's specialty acute care children's hospital for Hudson County.

    JCMC's Department of Pediatrics is a regional referral program which provides area physicians with a wide range of medical, diagnostic, psychological-social and therapeutic services. JCMC also offers a full complement of pediatric specialty services; a program of diagnostic, evaluation and treatment services for children and adolescents with developmental disabilities; and a rehabilitation services program which provides care for children with special needs that is unmatched in Hudson County. In addition, JCMC provides educational programs for area physicians through its Department of Pediatrics and operates a free-standing pediatric residency program which is approved by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education.

    JCMC is in substantial compliance with the criteria for minimum staff requirements and required service capabilities for designation as a children's hospital which have been developed by the advisory committee to the Department of Health on pediatric care, and compares favorably in that respect with those hospitals which already have been designated by statute as specialty acute care children's hospitals. These include: Children's Hospital of New Jersey for northern New Jersey; Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center for southern New Jersey; Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital/St. Peter's Medical Center in New Brunswick for the counties of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Somerset; and St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson for the counties of Bergen, Morris, Passaic, Sussex and Warren.

Designates Jersey City Medical Center as the State's specialty acute care children's hospital for Hudson County.