State board to hear CHS application

The State Health Planning Board is expected to make a recommendation Thursday to state Commissioner of Health

Fred M. Jacobs, who will make the final determination on the plan.
By:Lea Kahn Staff Writer
   The State Health Planning Board will meet Thursday, June in East Windsor to review Capital Health Systems’ application for a certificate of need to build a hospital on Princess Road, off Franklin Corner Road.
   The 9:30 a.m. meeting will be held at the National Conference Center at the Ramada Inn, 399 Monmouth St. in East Windsor . It will include an hour of public comment from people who did not speak at the state board’s May 10 meeting in Trenton.
   The State Health Planning Board is expected to make a recommendation Thursday to state Commissioner of Health Fred M. Jacobs, who will make the final determination on the plan. The board may recommend to approve, approve with conditions or deny the application.
   Once the State Health Planning Board makes its recommendation, Mr. Jacobs has 120 days to make a decision.
   Capital Health Systems is seeking a certificate of need to build a 320-bed hospital on a 32-acre site on Princess Road. If the application is approved, Capital Health Systems would close its Mercer Campus in Trenton and relocate most of the functions from that campus to the new, $291 million hospital.
   Lawrence Township officials object to the proposal, and Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun wrote a letter last week to the state Department of Health and Senior Services expressing the township’s opposition to the plan.
   Township officials want the letter to be included as public comment on the Trenton hospital system’s certificate of need application. Obtaining approval for a certificate of need is the first step in building a new hospital or relocating an existing one.
   Mr. Krawczun said township officials had reservations about the proposal from the day it was announced in January 2005. The plan has evolved from a two- or three-story hospital to a six- or seven-story building, along with a regional cancer center and a parking garage, he said.
   Township officials are concerned about the traffic impact of the hospital, which would operate around the clock. They also are concerned about the lack of bus service to the hospital, the building height and the issue of ambulances traveling through residential areas of the township, Mr. Krawczun said.