Two NJ cities, two besieged hospitals, two startlingly different results

Until Peter Betts came to Barnert Hospital in Paterson, NJ, in July 2007, he did not realize just how dire the financial straits were at his hospital, one of the two main medical centers in this struggling city. On the same day, the Bayonne Medical Center completed an agreement for its sale to a limited liability corporation that would assume the bulk of its debt. What has happened in Paterson and Bayonne paints a vivid picture of the distressed situation of New Jersey's hospital industry.