FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Violeta Peters
Chief Executive Officer of Specialty Hospitals
732-923-5037
SPECIALTY HOSPITAL AT KIMBALL STRENGTHENS CLINICAL TEAM
WITH ADDITION OF
EXPERIENCED CASE MANAGER
LAKEWOOD, NJ, March 21, 2006 — AcuteCare Health System (ACHS) has further
expanded its clinical team at Specialty Hospital at Kimball by bringing aboard
Patricia Gaughran of Tinton Falls as case manager.
In her new role, Gaughran is responsible for preparing patients and families for the transition from admission to the “hospital-within-a-hospital” facility through their extended stay to discharge. She also collaborates with other members of the health care team in the delivery of patient care and works with outside service agencies in the continuity of care after hospitalization.
Gaughran’s appointment follows the recent selection of LeeAnn Harmon of Manalapan as clinical director of Specialty Hospital at Kimball, which provides an intensive level of care to patients who require an extended period of hospital treatment.
Lakewood-based ACHS is the region’s leading independent provider of extended hospital care, operating two 25-bed state-licensed long term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) — Specialty Hospital at Kimball, located within Kimball Medical Center, Lakewood, and Specialty Hospital at Monmouth, located within Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch.
“We are extremely pleased to welcome Patty, a highly specialized nurse with a wealth of hospital-based experience, to our clinical team at Specialty Hospital at Kimball,” says Violeta Peters, chief executive officer of Specialty Hospital at Monmouth and Specialty Hospital at Kimball. “We continue to strengthen our leadership role in the delivery of specialized care to patients who require a hospital stay of 25 days or more.”
Gaughran joins Specialty Hospital at Kimball after spending 26 years at Monmouth Medical Center, where she primarily worked in the Emergency Department, including the past eight years as clinical director. A member of the Emergency Nurses Association and American Organization of Nurse Executives of New Jersey, she earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from College Misericordia, Dallas, Pa., and a master’s degree in human development from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck. She is pursuing her master’s degree in nursing from Monmouth University, West Long Branch.
She works closely with Specialty Hospital at Kimball executive director Hilary Michaels, who is responsible for all aspects of daily operations and for driving initiatives that promote ongoing program development, professional staff growth and patient satisfaction. “The expertise and health care experience of every member of our clinical team will undoubtedly benefit our patients and their families, as everyone works together to ensure that care and support is personally tailored to every patient,” she explains.
“Much of our success in improving patient outcomes is the result of a high nurse-to-patient ratio — one licensed professional to every four patients — and the fact that our caregivers get to know our patients and their family members over their extended hospital stay,” adds Michaels, a Toms River resident who before joining Specialty Hospital in 2004 specialized in overseeing operations in the delivery of wound care — most recently as patient care director of a medical/surgical unit for hospitalized patients at Community Medical Center, Toms River.
Michaels also had been administrative director of the Wound Treatment Center at Monmouth Medical Center and earlier as manager of wound management at Medical Center of Ocean County, Brick. A nursing graduate of Radford University in Radford, Va., she earned a master’s degree in nursing at University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Gaughran also will be supported in her role by Specialty Hospital at Kimball social worker Debra Foley of Brick. Before assuming her post in 2005, she had been director of community relations at The Manors at Somerset Assisted Living, Franklin. Prior to that, she had been a medical/surgical social worker at Saint Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and is certified as a school social worker.
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AcuteCare Health System, LLC, is a privately owned corporation formed in 2002 to establish and manage long term acute care hospitals (LTACHs). An LTACH (pronounced L-tack) provides diagnostic and medical treatment and rehabilitation to patients whose conditions are medically complex and require an average length-of-stay of 25 days or more.
Although ACHS’s Specialty Hospital at Monmouth and Specialty Hospital at Kimball are located within major medical centers, they are independent entities that offer the benefits of a smaller, more individualized hospital setting, combined with such life-support services as ventilator weaning, complex wound care, parenteral nutrition, respiratory and cardiac monitoring, and dialysis.
Patients typically are referred to the Specialty Hospitals through physician, nurse, case manager or social worker referral — from an intensive care unit.
For more information about Specialty Hospital at Monmouth, call 732-923-5037, and Specialty Hospital at Kimball, call 732-942-3597. Visit its Web site at www.acutecarehs.com.