A Mercer County Superior Court Judge ruled that the bill, fast-tracked in the legislature and signed by Christie in July, was special legislation and unconstitutional.
TRENTON -- Implementation of a controversial law that would effectively turnover paramedic services in Camden City to Cooper University Hospital was halted in Mercer County Superior Court on Tuesday.
In this 2012 file photo, Gov. Chris Christie attends the ground breaking for a new Cancer Institute at Cooper Hospital, with hospital board chairman George Norcross. In July, the governor signed a bill that takes the EMS service contractor away from Virtua and gives it to Cooper Hospital. (CHRIS PEDOTA | THE RECORD)Judge Douglas Hurd ruled the law was special legislation, which is prohibited by the state constitution, after Virtua and Capital Health System filed a lawsuit against the state challenging the law called Chapter 70.
Virtua has provided advanced life support, or ALS, services to Camden for the past 38 years.
The legislation, which was fast-tracked through the state legislature and signed by Governor Chris Christie in July, requires ALS service in a city to automatically be provided by the city's level one trauma center.
It further gives level one centers the opportunity to provide basic life support services. An additional provision allows Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital the option to provide ALS services in Hamilton. Capital Health, which has provided paramedic services in the large township since 1977, paired with Virtua to file the lawsuit in July.
While the Chapter 70 law does not mention Cooper specifically, Virtua officials blasted it as a power grab by Cooper and its chairman, South Jersey powerbroker George Norcross, to go around state statutes regulating how EMS services are awarded.
The state included a $2.5 million payment to Cooper to build up its paramedic services in the current fiscal year's budget.
Legislators and other supporters who backed the bill said it provides a greater continuity of care to Camden residents.
Camden County officials also cited a commissioned report on Virtua's paramedic response times as a reason to be concerned about its ALS services, a report Virtua slammed as inaccurate and skewed by an outdated standard that is not backed by empirical research.
Cooper cited the third-party report in its statement responding to Judge Hurd's decision.
"Independent studies and media reports have found that current emergency response times in Camden fall short of the recommended standards," the written statement read. "We continue to believe that Camden's residents deserve nothing less than the same level of high quality care available in other communities."
Virtua, which argued it provides top-notch ALS services without taking taxpayer funds, lauded Hurd's ruling, which stops the law from taking effect on Jan. 2 as planned.
"We are pleased that the court agreed with us that the controversial New Jersey act changing how emergency medical services were to be provided under the act was unconstitutional special legislation," said Virtua President and CEO Rich Miller in a written statement. "Now we look forward to continuing our focus on what is most critical to South Jersey residents, which is our on-going provision of experienced, award-winning, and high quality EMS services for the people in the City of Camden, and the 76 other municipalities we serve in Camden and Burlington counties."
This isn't the end of Chapter 70, however, as a statement from Cooper University Hospital said it expects the state's Appellate Division to soon review the case in order to prevent Camden from going without basic life support service on Jan. 2.
"Today's ruling by Superior Court Judge Hurd regarding emergency medical services in the City of Camden is just another step in a process that began when 75 percent of the New Jersey Legislature voted in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion to integrate EMS services in Camden with southern New Jersey's only Level 1 Trauma Center, Cooper University Hospital," it stated. "This is how emergency services are provided in the other New Jersey cities with Level 1 Trauma Centers."
Michelle Caffrey may be reached at mcaffrey@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ShellyCaffrey. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.
