On Sept. 16, during a breakfast meeting at the Anne Vogel Family Care and Wellness Center in Eatontown, more than a dozen officials representing 10 different municipalities in Monmouth County gathered to hear officials from Monmouth Medical Center provide more information about the planned Vogel Medical Campus in Tinton Falls.
Mayors, business administrators and other municipal leaders from Long Branch, Shrewsbury, Atlantic Highlands, Howell, Rumson, Neptune, Little Silver and elsewhere had a short meet-and-greet with Monmouth Medical Center CEO Eric Carney and others from the hospital before Carney began a presentation on the proposed 36-acre project — one that included a question-and-answer session.
All of the municipalities in attendance took advantage of the opportunity — except for Long Branch, where Monmouth Medical Center has been located for more than 100 years. Its mayor, John Pallone, and its assistant business administrator, Lindsay DeAngelis, left the event early, two people familiar with the meeting told BINJE.
Failing to stay for an entire meeting is not an unusual occurrence. Municipal leaders are pulled in so many different directions that they cannot be at all the events and meetings they would like — and there is no guarantee they will stay for the entirety of the ones they do attend.
What was surprising was this: More than a month later, on Oct. 21, Pallone sent a letter to officials at RWJBH not only voicing strong opposition to the proposal, but specifically saying the town had not been formally briefed on the plans.
“To date, my office and the city council have not been formally briefed on your plans for the relocation of the Long Branch hospital,” he wrote in the letter, which was viewed by BINJE.
Pallone’s Oct. 21 letter was the latest incident in what is becoming an increasingly uncomfortable — and acrimonious — situation around RWJBarnabas Health’s plans to build a new hospital at the Vogel Medical Campus, approximately 5 miles from the current hospital.
And it led to a strong response letter Oct. 30 from George Helmy, the chief external affairs and policy officer of RWJBarnabas Health.
“We have been transparent and deliberate in our efforts to educate the community about our proposal. This includes our outreach to elected officials, including yourself,” he wrote in a letter that also was viewed by BINJE.
Helmy also told Pallone that RWJBH had “engaged and worked directly with your brother, Rep. Frank Pallone, throughout the planning stages.”
Helmy went on to address other opportunities for conversation, including the Sept. 16 meeting.
“I understand that Monmouth Medical Center President and CEO Eric Carney has provided you with information regarding our plans on multiple occasions and contacted you directly to keep you informed of advancements,” he said. “Last month, you were in a meeting with Mr. Carney and other area mayors, and we were disappointed when you left the briefing while others stayed for a presentation on our plans for Monmouth Medical Center.”
The issue is so contentious that getting anyone to talk about it — publicly — is a challenge.
Officials at RWJBarnabas Health and the city of Long Branch did not provide comments on the matter to BINJE despite repeated outreach.
A representative from one of the towns present at the Sept. 16 meeting confirmed that Long Branch officials did not stay for the presentation — but the person only spoke on the condition of anonymity, not wanting to place their town in the middle of the situation.
The person said it was noted by those in the room that the leaders from Long Branch left the meeting when the formal presentation started. The person also said it was clear from the invite that the meeting was about the proposed medical campus.
The person would not speculate on the reason Long Branch officials left, but said they found the meeting informative, especially the 10-to-15-minute question-and-answer period that followed the presentation.
To be clear, the plan for the Vogel Medical Campus is not new. It has been on the drawing board for years — or since RWJBH said studies showed the current Monmouth Medical Center facility in Long Branch does not have the footprint to handle the necessary expansion.
The proposal for the Vogel Medical Campus received a step toward approval in mid-October, when the state Department of Health notified RWJBH that the system’s certificate of need application has been deemed complete, allowing the proposed project to move forward to the next phase of the review and approval process.
The decision signifies that all required documentation and information for the application has been submitted and accepted for review by the state.
That decision not only led to Monmouth Medical Center making a formal presentation to the media Oct. 17 (see BINJE’s coverage here and here and here), but also an uproar from others, including Hackensack Meridian Health and U.S. Rep. Pallone (D-6th Dist.), who said moving the facility would impact health care delivery in the area (see their thoughts here).
Plenty of statements have followed — including statements by others suggesting RWJBH intends to close Monmouth Medical Center. RWJBH has repeatedly said it intends to not only keep its emergency room and behavioral health services open but also upgrade them.
The acrimony came across in the written correspondence.
Mayor Pallone wrote:
“The proposed closure or relocation of the Long Branch hospital would have a devastating impact on our community. It would severely limit access to health care for thousands of residents, particularly those without the means to travel longer distances for care. Furthermore, the hospital is a major employer in Long Branch, and its closure would have far-reaching economic consequences for our local workforce and businesses.
“Our concerns are not abstract — they are grounded in the real-life implications this decision would have for public health, economic stability and community wellbeing. In a time when health care disparities are already too great, removing a full-service hospital from an urban, diverse and growing community is a step in the wrong direction.”
Helmy was strong in his response, definitively saying Monmouth Medical Center will not close before addressing what he called “misinformation” around the proposal.
“Not only are we transforming health care with the construction of a new acute-care facility in Tinton Falls, but our proposal also includes the modernization of Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch,” he wrote. “Your letter comes nearly a week after significant public reporting clearly indicated there is no plan to close Monmouth Medical Center.
“These independent press reports directly refuted false narratives and fearmongering from those who seek to prevent transformative care in Monmouth County, not to mention the significant investment and hundreds of good union jobs that would come from proposed construction.”
Helmy went on to write that RWJBarnabas Health is prepared to invest heavily to modernize the current Monmouth Medical Center campus in Long Branch — and that the application commits the system to:
- Upgrading the full-service emergency room and maintaining a significant number of observation beds;
- Maintaining outpatient radiology, outpatient surgical services and outpatient clinical specialty services;
- Maintaining both inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services;
- Staging ambulances in Long Branch to facilitate the pickup and arrival of emergency patients;
- Providing more on-site parking to improve access for residents seeking out Monmouth Medical Center for care and services;
- Utilizing rideshare partnerships to provide free, on-demand transport for any Long Branch resident needing transportation assistance to the proposed Tinton Falls facility services, consistent with its mission of expanding access to health care services for vulnerable populations.
Helmy also wrote that the system worked closely with Rep. Pallone on the initial application.
On Nov. 13, there will be a public meeting to discuss the project.
Whether there will be a meeting between officials from RWJBH and Monmouth Medical Center and the leaders of the city of Long Branch is not certain. Helmy, in his letter, said RWJBH is ready to meet.
“We remain open to meeting with you and members of city council, among others, at any time to have an honest discussion about our proposed modernization of Monmouth Medical Center,” he wrote.
This much is certain: Last Wednesday at the Ocean Place Resort and Spa in Long Branch, Mayor Pallone held an information session for the public about the project. During the same time period, at the same location, Monmouth Medical Center held a community health fair.
Neither side found time to go to the other’s event.
