Monmouth Medical Center
Coordinates: 40°17′44.66″N 73°59′8.40″W / 40.2957389°N 73.9856667°W
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| Type | Regional Medical Center, Private (not-for-profit) |
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| Established | 1887 |
| President | Frank J. Vozos |
| Location | Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | |
Monmouth Medical Center, in Long Branch, Monmouth County, New Jersey, is a not-for-profit, 527-bed, regional tertiary care teaching hospital located in Long Branch, New Jersey. Monmouth Medical Center covers 21 acres (85,000 m2), two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, in Long Branch. It is one of New Jersey’s largest community academic medical centers and is an academic affiliate of Philadelphia’s Drexel University College of Medicine. Monmouth is Drexel’s largest major academic medical affiliate in New Jersey. It is also part of the larger Barnabas Health. Monmouth’s service area represents a population of nearly 1 million year-round residents in Monmouth, and portions of Ocean and Middlesex counties in addition to the large population of tourists who are visiting.
History
In 1887, an epidemic struck Long Branch, leaving eight children from poor families sick and in need of care. With no hospital in the area, local businessmen rented four rooms over a Broadway storefront to care for the children – an act that laid the foundation for what is now Monmouth Medical Center. In its earliest years, the hospital moved three times before establishing itself in what was formerly Long Branch’s Central Hotel. The hospital later acquired surrounding buildings, expanded and opened the Community Wing, the Henry Pollak Memorial Clinic, the Betty Block Roberts Pavilion, the Winone J. Eisner Pavilion for Therapeutic Radiology and the Professional and Educational Building, among many others. Admissions total more than 19,000 annually, and emergency visits total nearly 43,000 a year. Annual outpatient clinic visits top 126,000.
Accreditation and awards
Monmouth Medical Center is accredited with commendation by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and is a member of the Council of Teaching Hospitals of the Association of American Medical Colleges. The Dental medicine residency is accredited by the American Dental Association. All other residencies are accredited by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
The hospital was recently recognized as a Distinguished Academic Medical Center among an elite group of the nation’s nine leading teaching hospitals, by Press Ganey. Additionally, Monmouth Medical Center had recently earned a ranking on Solucient 100 Top Hospitals – Performance Improvement Leaders award, recognizing Monmouth Medical Center for its clinical outcomes and patient safety. In 2006, the Department of Radiology received recognition in the publication Medical Imaging as a runner-up for "Best Freestanding Imaging Center or Group".[1]
Education
In 1945, Monmouth established its first residency program – in orthopedics – to meet the needs of physicians returning from World War II trained in treating battlefield trauma.
Half of the residents enter practice after graduation, while the others enter some of the most competitive fellowships in the United States. Today Monmouth has 110 residents in nine accredited residency programs.
Graduate medical education
- Dental Medicine Residency
- Diagnostic Radiology Residency
- General Surgery Residency
- Internal Medicine Residency
- Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency
- Orthopedic Surgery Residency
- Pathology Residency
- Pediatric Medicine Residency
- Podiatric Medicine Residency
Monmouth University Medical Scholars
This program allows incoming Freshman of Monmouth University a track directly tailored toward Medical School. Students are pre-selected, enter a rigorous Pre-medical, undergraduate course of study and are guided by way of special advisors and preceptors at Monmouth Medical Center. If successfully completing the program with desired GPA and MCAT scores, they are ensured acceptance at Drexel University College of Medicine.[2]
The campus
The hospital’s main building comprises 16 wings that occupy a total of 735,000 square feet (68,300 m2), in addition to 16 other buildings totaling 185,100 square feet (17,200 m2). These include apartments for resident physicians, a privately operated day care center, Ronald McDonald House, and a professional and educational building.
Services
Unterberg Children's Hospital
The first mention of a special area devoted to the care of children appeared in the hospital’s 1904 annual report, and the first mention of a pediatrician highlights Lester D. Wise, M.D., as chief of pediatrics in the 1920 annual report. By 1923, Dr. Wise was joined by Stanley Nichols, M.D., and they are both reported to have worked in the Dispensary Department for the Children’s Clinic. In 1934, Dr. Nichols became one of the first child specialists in the country to be certified by the newly created American Board of Pediatrics. Under his direction, the elements of the pediatric program were specified by the time the Borden Memorial Pavilion was built in 1940. Dr. Nichols served as chief of pediatrics from 1935 until his death in 1949, at which time the Dr. Stanley Nichols Branch of the hospital auxiliary was formed to support pediatric projects. The Regional Newborn Center opened in 1968 made Monmouth the first hospital in New Jersey and the first community hospital in the country to establish a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). During polio epidemic of 1940s, polio treatment developed under the leadership of Dr. Nicholas Ransohoff from curare, a relaxant drug used in ancient times got international attention. The volume of polio patients reached its peak in 1949, with patients traveling to Monmouth from other states and even overseas. In January 2006, Monmouth Medical Center was licensed by New Jersey as an official children’s hospital for Monmouth and Ocean counties. Now Monmouth has 140 pediatric specialists in 26 fields of medicine.
Pollak Mental Health Center
In 1950, Monmouth Medical Center unveiled Pollak Mental Health Services, the first outpatient mental health clinic in the county, and today the outpatient service offers the full range of behavioral health services. Monmouth’s recently expanded Psychiatric Emergency Screening Service (PESS) is the designated such service for Monmouth County, and Children's Crisis Intervention Service is the area's state-designated program for the inpatient treatment of children and adolescents with acute emotional, behavioral or psychiatric problems.[3]
David S. Zocchi Brain Tumor Center
The David S. Zocchi Brain Tumor Center at the Leon Hess Cancer Center provides a full spectrum of comprehensive services to treat benign and malignant tumors originating in the brain and spinal cord, as well as neurological complications of cancer that has spread to other regions of the body.
Jacqueline M. Wilentz Comprehensive Breast Center
Since opening in December 1994, the Jacqueline M. Wilentz Comprehensive Breast Center has been the region's leader in providing the advanced breast health services. The Center also offers satellite locations for the convenience of our patients in Colts Neck, Howell and Lakewood, New Jersey.
Eisenberg Family Center
Eisenberg Family Center is a comprehensive maternal and birth center offering prenatal, delivery and post natal care. Around 4200 babies are born each year in the center.
Dental Medicine
Monmouth Medical Center has one of the largest dental departments in New Jersey. Some of the most advanced surgical procedures performed here include temporomandibular joint arthroscopy, orthognathic surgery as well as comprehensive dentistry under general anesthesia for pediatric and special needs patients.
Integrative Medical Team
The center involves conventional and complementary modalities of treatment offering acupuncture, herbal consultation, massage therapy, yoga and diabetes management education.
The Altschul Medical Library
Located within the hospital, this collection serves as the major information resource for the faculty, residents and students in the Department of Medical Education and staff of Monmouth Medical Center. The Library houses 4000 monographs, 7000 reels of microfilm, 2000 bound volumes, and subscribes to 300 journals.
The Library is a member of the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative and National Network of Libraries of Medicine. It participates in the National Library of Medicine Docline and has interlibrary loan arrangements with 100+ hospitals and universities throughout New Jersey.
MMC Dedicates Library In Memory of Altschul. From the COAST ADVERTISER, Thursday, September 2, 1971. Page 2.
LONG BRANCH - The medical library of Monmouth Medical Center has been dedicated in memory of the late Dr. Frank J. Altschul who served the hospital for nearly half a century prior to his death in late May.
Professional associates and hospital officials eulogized the physician in a ceremony in the library attended by his family and friends and many former patients, which concluded with the unveiling by Mrs. Altschul of a bronze plaque which reads: The Dr. Frank J. Altschul Library. In recognition of his many years of devoted service and intellectual stimulus to the medical profession this library is dedicated to his memory by the Board of Governors and the Medical Staff of Monmouth Medical Center.
Dr. Altschul came to the hospital in 1924 as an intern and was elected to the medical staff at the conclusion of his training. In 1945 he was elected director of the department of medicine, a post he held until 1960. In 1970, the board of governors waived all formalities to elect him to membership in recognition of his services.
Among his many professional honors was his election in 1969 to a fellowship in the American College of Cardiology on the basis of merit alone, in recognition of his achievements in the field of cardiology and his 15 years of service as MMC's director of medicine.
Dr. Joel Feldman, a former president of the MMC medical board, who presided at the dedication ceremony, described his long-time friend and associate as a “source of great inspiration - an excellent and knowledgeable teacher."
"He was a good man and in addition he was good for medicine as it was and as it came to be practiced in Monmouth County. This library which has been very close to his heart because it is intimately connected with medical knowledge shall be an everlasting tribute to an exceptional and dedicated doctor," Dr. Feldman said.
His expressions of respect and praise for Dr. Altschul were echoed by Robert C. Stanley Jr., MMC president; Dr. Lester A. Barnett, president of the medical board; MMC administrator Felix M. Pilla and Monroe Eisner, a member of the board of governors for more than 50 years, its president for a decade and now its chairman.
In recalling their long association, Eisner said: "It is difficult to put all of the memories of this man in proper sequence because they are so many and so varied. But above all, I remember him not only as a dedicated physician but as an old and trusted friend.
"This library of medical knowledge could be no better named, for Frank Altschul never ended the quest for knowledge - for information that he could use to better serve his patients. It was the goal of his life to help others. He was a man of infinite kindness that was reflected in all of his professional activities as well as in his personal life. To everyone he gave of himself in equal measure."
The Right Rev. Monsignor Salvatore DiLorenzo of St. Anthony’s R.C. Church, Red Bank, gave the invocation and benediction.
Monmouth Medical Center Foundation
This organization, started in 1982, is a volunteer group that fundraises through various functions to help provide charitable care to the community it serves.[4]
Honors & Awards
- The only hospital in New Jersey to be ranked in the top 5 percent in the nation for Emergency Medicine Excellence by Healthgrades for three consecutive years. Also earned the Stroke Excellence Award for three consecutive years.
- U.S. News & World Report ranking among the best hospitals in the greater metropolitan area, and as “High Performing” in cancer, gastroenterology and GI surgery, geriatrics, gynecology, neurology/neurosurgery and urology.
- Joint Commission recognition as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures for Heart Attack, Heart Failure and Pneumonia Care.
- Earned Joint Commission Disease Specific Certification for Acute Coronary Syndrome, Breast Cancer, Hip/Knee Replacement, Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, Spine Surgery and Advanced Certification for Heart Failure and Primary Stroke.
- Jacqueline M. Wilentz Comprehensive Breast Center is the first in the region to be designated a Certified Quality Breast Center of Excellence, the highest recognition attainable from the National Quality Measures for Breast Centers and is also a recipient of the Women’s Choice Award as one of America’s best breast centers.