1. TRENTON PSYCHIATRIC GETS NEW CHIEF
2. ONE OF GREYSTONE'S OWN RETURNS TO LEAD
3. A DOOR CLOSES ON HELP FOR JERSEY BUDGET
4. HOSPITAL LOOKS TO CLOSE WARD
5. GOVERNORS UNITE TO URGE SHIFTING COSTS OF MEDICAID
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TRENTON PSYCHIATRIC GETS NEW CHIEF
The top administrator of the problem-plagued Greystone Park
Psychiatric Hospital yesterday was named to head the Trenton
Psychiatric Hospital in Ewing.
Greg Roberts, who has run Greystone in Parsippany for the past
three years will take over as CEO of the Ewing facility, which
has been without a permanent leader for about two years. Roberts,
who also ran the former Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital, said
he is looking forward to his new assignment, which starts
Sept. 15.
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ONE OF GREYSTONE'S OWN RETURNS TO LEAD
Janet Monroe, who began her career with the state of New Jersey
25 years ago as a nurse at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital,
has been named to head the state institution.
Monroe, 48, who lives in Sussex County, has taken advantage
of the department's scholarship programs to achieve the continuous
string of promotions that brought her to a deputy executive's
post. She said she knows challenges lie ahead, particularly
as Greystone moves forward on a construction program that
will see its antiquated buildings replaced with a new hospital
complex. But Monroe said she was undaunted.
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A DOOR CLOSES ON HELP FOR JERSEY BUDGET
New Jersey's budget outlook is even bleaker this week after
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield announced it was dropping plans
to go public, a decision that could deprive the cash-starved
state of more than $1 billion. Treasury department officials
have been anticipating the potential revenue source for more
than a year.
Wall Street experts who monitor the state's finances for investors
have estimated that New Jersey next year will face an immediate
shortfall of $2.5 billion. That's because some temporary revenue
sources that helped balance the budget will have been spent.
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HOSPITAL LOOKS TO CLOSE WARD
Somerset Medical Center notified the state Department of Health
and Senior Services earlier this month that it would like
to close its psychiatric unit in the next few months. The
state has at least 60 days to decide on it. Other New
Jersey hospitals have recently closed or are planning to close
their behavioral health units, including Saint Barnabas Medical
Center in Livingston, Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and Englewood
Hospital.
Hospital officials are advancing a plan to close the hospital's
unit and refer patients instead to the Carrier Clinic, a psychiatric
hospital eight miles away in Belle Mead. Carrier's 281-bed
facility, which fills less than a third of its licensed beds,
already has a relationship with the hospital.
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GOVERNORS UNITE TO URGE SHIFTING COSTS OF MEDICAID
Nothing concerns state governors more these days than their
state budgets, and nothing is driving their deficits deeper,
they say, than rising Medicaid costs.
With only three states showing a budget surplus, all 50 governors
have lined up in a rare show of unity to support a provision
of the House prescription drug bill that would shift as much
as $7 billion in costs to the federal government to cover
more than six million people known as "dual eligibles." The
title refers to people who qualify for prescription coverage
under both Medicare, the federal program for the elderly,
and Medicaid, the federal-state partnership for the poor.
