At a time when the need for behavioral health services continues to rise, RWJBarnabas Health is working on plans to make its current inpatient facility at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch bigger and better.
To be clear, the changes are years away. They will come as part of the system’s plans to transition some services in Long Branch to a new acute care hospital they aim to open at the Vogel Medical Campus in Tinton Falls — in 6-8 years, depending on approvals and construction.
But perhaps what may be overlooked in the transition plans is what will remain at the 135-year-old facility.
More on RWJBH’s plans for hospital in Tinton Falls:
- RWJBH details plans for modern hospital to anchor Vogel Medical Campus in Tinton Falls
- Announcement by RWJBH of new hospital in Tinton Falls blasted by Pallone, HMH
- Their own words: Monmouth Medical Center officials on benefits of hospital at Vogel Medical Campus
In addition to maintaining an emergency room, Monmouth Medical Center CEO Eric Carney said there are plans to improve behavioral health facilities, which currently share space in the Todd Tower of the facility.
The tower, built in 1980, can be upgraded, Carney said.
“We can renovate it to meet current, modern standards,” he said. “It is going to be our inpatient behavioral health center of the future.”
The number of beds may not necessarily change – the unit currently has 65 – but the quality of the rooms will, Carney said.
“We’re going to have a unique opportunity to create a state-of-the-art residential behavioral health unit that gives patients with mental illness the same amenities that our labor and delivery patients, as well as our orthopedic surgery patients, receive today,” he said.
Ann Szapor, the chief nursing officer at Monmouth Medical Center, gave some of the details – including rooms with ocean views – and how they will help.
“The ocean view and residential feel will be a game-changer for them, because many of them spend many days, if not weeks, with us in our inpatient behavioral health units, including our pediatric inpatient behavioral health,” she said.
Szapor noted the increased space at the facility will enable it to provide outpatient services in a new setting, too.
“That space is going to be really important for our behavioral health patients,” she said.
This won’t happen overnight.
The proposal to transition the hospital license to the Vogel Medical Campus still needs to be approved (it’s expected) before services can be transitioned. If that happens as hoped, by 2032, Carney said it will still take a few years to transform the Long Branch facility after that.
Carney said upgrading behavioral health services in Long Branch enhances the system’s care for the local community,
Carney said that typically more than 25% of the patients in the facility are from the Long Branch and Asbury Park communities – which is a higher percentage than the locals using the hospital overall.
Monmouth Medical Center and RWJBH already care for these patients in a variety of ways, Carney said.
“We have extensive outpatient behavioral health services here at Monmouth Medical Center,” he said. “We have a program called an acute partial hospitalization for individuals who are seriously mentally ill who we’re trying to keep out of the hospital but have a challenging time managing their own health independently.”
Keeping these options in Long Branch is important, Carney said.
“People who have serious mental illness, who rely on those intense services, they tend to center their lives around where the services are being provided,” he said. “So, it does explain this disproportionately higher percentage of people that are in our behavioral health unit compared to other programs, because, quite frankly, the population has set up where we are today.
“We believe it’s the absolute right thing by our community to leave those services in the city for those patients.”
Mary Anne Nagy, the chair of the board of trustees at Monmouth Medical Center, applauded this aspect of the greater announcement.
Nagy, who worked for years at nearby Monmouth University, said she understands how important behavioral health services are to the area.
“When my students were sick, and when they needed mental health support or behavioral health support, the one and only place I wanted them to be sent was Monmouth Medical,” she said. “I know the level of care that they received.
“So, the fact that we are now going to also be able to modernize this campus to enhance those services, at a time when we know that mental health challenges are even greater, I think is a win for all of our community.”
