In a final tangible act to solidify Kessler’s end as a local hospital for Hammonton, large real estate signs adorn the lawn on White Horse Pike. The former hospital, now with a license to operate and its sole occupant AtlantiCare’s emergency room, is up for sale.

The hospital lost a long financial battle, entering bankruptcy a few years ago, and going through several CEO’s who tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the ailing non-profit. Before closing its doors as an acute care facility, AtlantiCare agreed to keep the emergency room open. The length of the agreement is unknown by MyHammonton.

Hammonton’s future of acute care rests in the hands of AtlantiCare or any other facility willing to build within town limits.

A couple weeks ago, we heard that most if not all Kessler employees had been paid, but it turns out sick days, vacation days, and other compensation wasn’t taken paid out. Who could imagine?

Employees received one week’s pay when Kessler closed March 12 and received another partial payment several days later, Woolston said, but they are still owed about two weeks’ salary, as well as compensation for accrued sick, vacation and personal time.

“Payments have been sporadic, but bill collectors are not going to wait,” Woolston said. “It is certainly not worthy of the dedication these workers showed that hospital.”

Let’s face it, unless some sale occurs, as the article says, the chance of anyone collecting on their vacation pay has got to be nil. The saddest part of the article is that fact that COBRA is not available for workers without jobs, since the hospital is now shut down.

Dr Zwiebel addressed Hammonton’s Town Council last night, as covered in The Atlantic City Press:

“It’s night and day,” said Dr. Bill Zwiebel, who worked at Kessler Memorial Hospital for 25 years before it closed March 12. He now works at Kessler Campus as a member of AtlantiCare’s emergency department staff.

AtlantiCare took over the E.R. after Kessler Memorial closed, and, Zwiebel said, it immediately began making improvements. On Monday night, AtlantiCare officials updated Town Council on their progress. Zwiebel spoke at the meeting and in an interview with The Press of Atlantic City.

Toward the end of Kessler Memorial, Ziebel said, the emergency department was in disarray: The staff had insufficient supplies and equipment, and sanitary conditions were deplorable, he said.

While we hate to see the past brought up, in the end this is a big positive for people who need emergency services. AtlantiCare has deep resources, and immediately got them into place at Kessler.

While the State of NJ didn’t have any money to help our financially distressed hospital, it did have enough time to tell ambulances not to bring patients to Kessler’s Emergency Room, even though its fully staffed and operational:

The state is asking ambulances to stop transporting patients to Kessler Memorial Hospital until the facility resolves its financial problems. But the hospital’s emergency room is still open, and the Hammonton Rescue Squad plans to keep bringing patients to the facility — even with the divert order in place.

This infuriates me. Governor Corzine gave MILLIONS to hospitals that were in fine fiscal shape, but nothing to distressed hospitals, like Kessler. To add insult to injury, they put out this divert order, which carries no legal weight apparently (Hammonton’s ambulances will still be going to Kessler).

Hopefully the deal went through today and the hospital is saved.

Exit question: Is there a single registered voter, Republican or Democrat, in Hammonton who would actually cast a ballot to reelect Governor Corzine at this point?

Update: This in the AC Press this morning:

Michael Sandnes, the hospital’s interim chief restructuring officer, sent a letter to the state Department of Health and Senior Services Deputy Commissioner Matthew D’Oria on Tuesday to announce he was placing “a voluntarily curtailment on inpatient admissions” to the hospital effective at noon Tuesday.

“This ban will preclude the inpatient admissions of any individual who arrives or is referred to this hospital from the commencement of this order,” Sandnes wrote. “Kessler Memorial Hospital will remain on a divert status in its Emergency Department, and will not authorize first-aid squads to transport patients to this facility.”

Employees can’t get paid yet, but they’ve been promised the money is coming today. Kessler is down to the final wire if the new buyer doesn’t come through. This may be the endgame. Say a prayer that the deal goes through, the employees can get paid, and service continues at Kessler.

update: A third source has confirmed that the meeting is cancelled. The only question left is why.

We’ve gotten word from a confidential source that the meeting Kessler would hold tomorrow with Lady of Lourdes hospital for a possible merger/bailout/affiliation has been cancelled due to outside parties involvement.

We can’t confirm it, but the source is placed inside of one of the two entities.

We’ll post more if we learn anything more.

The meeting was to be closed-doors at the Town Hall, as they were invited by the Mayor to hold their meeting there.

We’re hoping that they are just moving the meeting to a private location, This meeting is officially cancelled, but lets hope that these talks will continue….

We got the following letter today from Peter Colella, Chief Restructuring Officer of Kessler Memorial Hospital:

To the Residents of Hammonton –

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Peter Colella, Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) of Kessler Memorial Hospital. As CRO, I would like to thank the Mayor, the Police Chief, Hammonton Town Council, the Hammonton community, the dedicated employees of Kessler and the Kessler Medical Staff for your continued support of Kessler Memorial Hospital.

Though, we have been through a turbulent year at Kessler, we are committed to serving Hammonton and the surrounding communities.

With that in mind, it gives me great joy to inform you that Kessler Hospital has emerged from bankruptcy. The first payment needed for us to emerge from bankruptcy has been received on 12.14.07. The second shall be received on 12.20.07.

The Kessler staff is excited and remains highly dedicated to providing the Hammonton community with the highest level of quality care. Be assured, Kessler will be receptive to your healthcare needs well into the future.

Once again, thank you and may you have a Happy Holiday.

We’re excited to see Kessler reaching out to the public, keeping us informed, and most of all, surviving the bankruptcy proceedings.

Thanks to at least one very large donation of $500,000, and other donations as well, The Foundation today shared with MyHammonton that they’ve raise around $1,000,000 as of today.

The Foundation also feels secure that they WILL raise the remaining money needed to keep Kessler’s doors open after the November 20th deadline. They will, of course, need to raise a significant amount of additional dollars after the 20th.

Great job!

According to the Kessler Foundation, the reason six board members are included in the buyout plan rests in whats called CHAPA regulations. In order to expedite the process of rehabilitating the hospital, the Foundation chose to take this route. If they did not accept the six board members, the buyout process could take a year or longer. The opinion of the Foundation is that the Hospital can not last another year without a buyout.

As for who the Board members are, the Foundation said they have not been chosen, and is not even a front-burner issue. Their entire focus at this moment is raising the $2 Million before November 20th, and any choices of Board Members would come at a much later time.