The New Jersey Department of Health approved Jersey City (N.J.) Medical Center's proposal to open a satellite emergency department approximately six blocks from CarePoint Health's Bayonne (N.J) Medical Center, which is a rival hospital, according to NJ.com.
JCMC, owned by West Orange, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health, will open the new ED in RWJB Health's medical arts building.
Since satellite EDs are only allowed to replace emergency rooms that have closed, JCMC needed a waiver from the state to open a new department. The hospital received approval from the state on July 24 after officials agreed the new ED would prevent overcrowding at JCMC's downtown Jersey City ED.
In the application for the waiver, JCMC said it treated 87,000 patients in its ED in 2016, when it is only equipped to handle 57,000 patients.
Jersey City-based CarePoint Health is strictly opposed to the new ED because it owns and operates two hospitals in the area. CarePoint officials filed numerous documents in opposition of JCMC's request for a waiver. Local groups also opposed the request for the new ED in Bayonne County, arguing JCMC should open the satellite ED in a different neighborhood where it closed a hospital 10 years ago.
CarePoint Health has nine applications to establish satellite EDs under review.