The hearing was originally scheduled for Oct. 29 at the Ocean Place Resort in Long Branch. Pallone alleged Thursday the state moved the meeting to make it more difficult for people who oppose the project to be able to come. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have never seen such an outrage in my entire life,\u201d Pallone said in a heated exchange with former U.S. Sen. George Helmy<\/a>\u201a who\u2019s also executive vice president, chief external affairs and policy officer for RWJ Barnabas Health. <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re a United States Senator and you think this is okay?\u201d Pallone asked, standing over a seated Helmy prior to the hearing. <\/p>\n Officials with RWJ Barnabas Health, which owns Monmouth Medical, said they planned for 250 attendees. However, when the meeting started at 4 p.m., there were still dozens of people waiting in a long queue outside. <\/p>\n Pallone later claimed in a press release that more than 500 residents arrived to speak and were denied entry. NJ Advance Media couldn\u2019t verify that number. <\/p>\n \u201cWhile I understand and appreciate the congressman\u2019s comments, we do believe we provided adequate opportunity,\u201d Eric Carney, president and chief executive officer of Monmouth Medical, told NJ Advance Media Thursday night when asked about Pallone\u2019s remarks. <\/p>\n More than three hours after the meeting started, Mike Beson was among a handful of people still waiting in an overflow room for his chance to speak. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m here to say that it\u2019s an underserved area,\u201d said Beson, a resident of Ocean Township. <\/p>\n Monmouth Medical, a 513-bed facility in Long Branch owned by RWJ Barnabas Health<\/a>, plans to transfer its labor and delivery services, acute care in-patient beds and the hospital\u2019s license to a new facility on the site of the Vogel Medical Campus in Tinton Falls. <\/p>\n The new 252-bed acute care hospital will be constructed in two towers, one dedicated to women and children\u2019s services and the other to surgery. The facility will also have in-patient services. It\u2019s expected to open in 2032.<\/p>\n There will still be a range of services available at Monmouth Medical after the move. The current labor and delivery unit will become a residential behavioral health unit. The hospital\u2019s emergency department will remain.<\/p>\n The relocation plan has gotten mixed reactions. On Thursday, opponents repeatedly raised concerns about accessibility. The new hospital will be built about 20 minutes from the existing facility.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re putting one more burden on people who can\u2019t get around. I love the statement that was just made \u2014 it\u2019s not that big a commute. My question is: for whom?” asked the Rev. Sue Mamchak, who said she doesn\u2019t have a car and lives on a fixed income.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s $18 to go from Long Branch to Tinton Falls,\u201d Mamchak said. \u201cPlease, remember the impact of just the problem of getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokeswoman for RWJ Barnabas Health said Friday the proposal includes free rideshare service for those who need it. <\/p>\n Other speakers raised concerns about the impact the move would have on other hospitals in the region, such as Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune City, Ocean University Medical Center in Brick and Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank. <\/p>\n \u201cThe abrupt shift in population flow caused by Monmouth\u2019s move would overwhelm hospitals never built to handle that surge, destabilizing the entire regional balance of care,\u201d said Tim Hogan, president and CEO of Riverview Medical Center. <\/p>\n \u201cFor Riverview Medical Center, should this proposal go through in current form, we will have hard decisions to make, including whether it is viable to remain open,\u201d Hogan told the State Health Planning Board Thursday. <\/p>\n Support for new facilities<\/p>\n But not everyone opposes the idea. There was a strong showing of support for the proposal Thursday from Monmouth Medical employees, members of the hospital\u2019s board and others affiliated with the hospital. Many of them mentioned the need for updated facilities. <\/p>\n A majority of the hospital\u2019s medical care is provided in buildings that predate 1970, with the oldest built in 1935, according to Carney, the hospital\u2019s president and CEO. <\/p>\n On Thursday, Carney testified that an architectural assessment of the 13-acre campus completed in 2016 deemed the current location in Long Branch undesirable and near end of life for continued hospital operations.<\/p>\n \u201cShould we stay in a building that will become eventually unusable or should we build with the future? My argument is we should go towards the future,\u201d said Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov, chief of surgery at Monmouth Medical. <\/p>\n Other speakers suggested that Monmouth Medical pursue a third option that allows both the existing hospital and the future hospital to operate as licensed acute care facilities. <\/p>\n \u201cIt can\u2019t be either\/or,\u201d said Bishop William Edwards of the Long Branch Church of God. \u201cI believe it\u2019s got to be both\/and. Both sides make valid points.\u201d<\/p>\n The move isn\u2019t final yet. <\/p>\n The public can still submit comments to the State Health Planning Board via email through Nov. 20. The board will vote on a recommendation at its next meeting, on Dec. 4. <\/p>\n The board\u2019s decision will then be submitted to the Acting Commissioner of Health Jeffrey A. Brown, who has the final say. <\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State Health Planning Board sat through hours of impassioned testimony Thursday on the relocation of services from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":379439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,1142,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-379438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115550698006033871","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"RWJ](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3ZEL26LAERF2FLPA4LWGVKWMCI.png\")
A rendering of the new acute care hospital opening in 2032 on the Vogel Medical Campus.RWJ Barnabas Health<\/p>\n