Visitors to Monmouth Medical Center, Southern Campus (MMCSC) will find the facility has undergone significant renovations and upgrades since early 2015, offering local residents greater access to advanced health care services and programs. To mark the completion of three major projects and highlight a number of additional enhancements to the hospital, MMCSC recently hosted a Fall Open House and Reception.

“Today we commemorate the final phase in a major three phase project that started in the beginning of 2015, shortly after Kimball Medical Center merged with Monmouth Medical Center to become Monmouth Medical Center, Southern Campus,” said Frank J. Vozos, M.D., FACS, executive vice president, RWJBarnabas Health and chief executive, Monmouth Medical Center, Southern Campus. “These projects began with a full revamp of our main lobby, continued when we converted to all private rooms and came to fruition today with the unveiling of The River Avenue Pavilion.”

In the short time following the merger with Monmouth Medical Center, MMCSC has completed numerous large-scale projects, including updating the main lobby; renovating the grounds, parking areas and façade on the Route 9 side of the building; and transitioning all patient rooms to private rooms, making MMCSC the only hospital in the region to exclusively offer single rooms for overnight stays.

“In addition to these renovations, we’ve also made several other enhancements, all with the goal of providing superior service to Lakewood and the surrounding region,” said Dr. Vozos. “The creation of the Better Health Senior Membership Program, which allows seniors in our area to socialize and learn all while staying active and healthy, now boasts more than 1,400 members, while a growing partnership with Bikur Cholim has enabled us to provide free shuttle services for patients, visitors and guests between our facility and Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch.”

Open to the community, the Fall Open House featured tours of the upgraded portions of the facility, including the newly updated Main Lobby, Geriatric Emergency Medicine (GEM) Unit, Jacqueline M. Wilentz Breast Center, Acute Care for Elders (ACE) Unit and its private rooms, and the Geriatrics Institute.

The one-of-a-kind Geriatrics Institute, which will be opening its doors mid-November, will provide integrated inpatient and outpatient geriatric services for patients 65 and older. The third floor of MMCSC will house the inpatient, outpatient and community education aspects of geriatric medicine in one location. Physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and audiologists will also be located on this floor to accommodate the needs of patients as they transition from inpatient to outpatient care.

Further complementing the Geriatrics Institute are the Geriatric Emergency Medicine (GEM) Unit, created to meet the more complex needs of seniors in emergency care, and the Acute Care for Elders (ACE) Unit, an inpatient unit utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to collaboratively develop a patient-centered care plan.

Another newly enhanced portion of the facility highlighted during the Open House tour included the relocated Jacqueline M. Wilentz Breast Center. The Breast Center, following the addition of fellowship-trained breast surgeons Manpreet Kohli, M.D. and Sumy Chang, M.D., now offers services that include breast screening mammography, diagnostic mammography, breast surgery consultation and high-risk cancer assessment.

PHOTO (from left to right): Judy Colorado, Chief Nursing Officer, Monmouth Medical Center, Southern Campus; Frank J. Vozos, MD, FACS, Executive Vice President, RWJBarnabas Health and Chief Executive, Monmouth Medical Center, Southern Campus; Amy Mansue, Southern Region President, RWJBarnabasHealth; Denice Gaffney, Vice President of Development, Monmouth Medical Center, Southern Campus Foundation; Jonathan Tango, Vice President of Operations, Monmouth Medical Center, Southern Campus.

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