Sale of hospital won't mean a windfall for Burlco

The Burlington County Board of Freeholders has agreed to sell Buttonwood Hospital for $15 million to help taxpayers, but the county budget will get only a roughly $7 million bump after the facility's debt is paid off.

The 100-year-old county institution is expected to be turned over by June to Ocean Healthcare, a Lakewood, N.J., nursing-home rehabilitation chain. But first the county will have to retire more than $8 million in improvement bonds, Ralph Shrom, a board spokesman, said Thursday.

Over the emotional protests of hospital workers, patients' families, and health-care advocates, the board voted, 5-0, Wednesday to accept Ocean Healthcare's bid, the only one submitted at the March 1 auction. Board members said that the 200-bed hospital had been losing money for 10 years and that they wanted to use the money from the sale to keep taxes low.

Earlier, the all-Republican board received a petition signed by 5,000 residents who opposed the sale. It also held a hearing attended by about 400 people, many of whom carried signs and wore red "Save Buttonwood" T-shirts.

After the vote at the county administration building in Mount Holly, a crowd of about 60 angry people chanted, "Shame on you! Shame on you!"

Adam Liebtag, president of Communications Workers of America 1036, the union that represents most of Buttonwood's staff, said the freeholders were "selling out - cheaply."

"This will jeopardize the quality of care for senior citizens, the mentally ill, and the most vulnerable residents of Burlington County, and it won't bring in the exorbitant cash infusion originally promised by the county," he said in a statement after the vote.

The Pemberton hospital has 170 long-term nursing beds and 30 psychiatric beds, populated mostly by Medicaid/Medicare patients.

Liebtag said the sale would save each county household only about $24 a year, which he based on the county's $3.7 million subsidy of the hospital last year.

Freeholder Joe Donnelly said the board has "taken a surgical look at all our services" and felt compelled to take action "to address Buttonwood" after a consultant projected that the hospital would continue to lose money.

The consultant said the hospital was expected to cost the county $4.5 million this year, partly due to declining Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.

Donnelly also said he visited Ocean Healthcare's nursing/rehabilitation center in Mercer County and was impressed with the care that was provided there.

Joe Kiernan, a vice president for Ocean Healthcare, which owns and operates 15 nursing-home rehabilitation centers across New Jersey, said the company was "looking forward to becoming part of the Burlington County community" and has "no intention of displacing any patient. . . . It's their home, and we believe in treating them with the dignity or respect they deserve."

Kiernan also said the company planned to meet with all of the hospital's 319 employees and would like to "retain as many of the staff members as possible." He said that there were no plans to reduce the workforce and that the company was considering expansion into unused space.

at 856-779-3224 or jhefler@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @JanHefler. Read her blog at philly.com/BurlcoBuzz.