Englewood Health has secured a $500,000 state grant to expand its Asian Health and Wellness Center in Englewood Cliffs, strengthening access to tailored medical care for Bergen County’s growing Asian American population.
Hospital leadership joined elected officials and community partners at the Englewood Cliffs campus to celebrate the funding, which was secured in the New Jersey state budget with support from State Senator Gordon Johnson and Assemblywoman Ellen Park.
The grant directly supports the expansion of the Asian Health and Wellness Center, which operates within a broader, 100,000-square-foot development project at Englewood Health’s Englewood Cliffs campus. The larger expansion will add outpatient services and healthcare facilities to meet growing regional demand.
“This investment is about making sure patients can access exceptional care in an environment where they feel understood, welcomed and supported,” Warren Geller, president and CEO of Englewood Health, said. “We are grateful to Senator Johnson and our state leaders for recognizing the importance of culturally responsive care and investing in the health of the communities we serve.”
The Asian Health and Wellness Center was established to deliver coordinated primary and specialty care specifically suited to the health needs of the area’s Korean and Chinese communities.
To ensure patients feel comfortable and understood, the center features a fully multilingual team—from front-desk intake staff and medical assistants to nurses and physicians—who help patients navigate their care in their primary language.
“When you can’t communicate with a patient in the language they’re most comfortable with, you can miss the subtleties and nuances of their story—details that are often essential to making a diagnosis,” Dr. Stephen Brunnquell, president of the Englewood Health Physician Network said. “We’ve created a center where not only our doctors and nurses, but also our receptionists, medical assistants and other support staff, can communicate with patients in their preferred language.”
By integrating language access directly into clinical and administrative routines, the center seeks to eliminate common communication barriers that lead to healthcare disparities among non-English-speaking populations.
