Specialty Hospitals of New Jersey Foundation, National Hospital Week, Acute Care LTACHs at Monmouth and Kimball

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Violeta Peters
Chief Executive Officer of AcuteCare Health System
732-923-5037

In Observance of National Hospital Week
SPECIALTY HOSPITALS SALUTES TEAMS OF EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONALS
WHO OFFER PATIENTS HIGHEST LEVEL OF LONG TERM ACUTE CARE

Representing Specialty Hospital at Kimball’s multidisciplinary team that is being recognized during National Hospital Week are, from right, nursing assistant Agnes Gronmadski, materials manager Kutura Lippett, unit secretary Phyllis LaVorgna, respiratory therapist Sylvie Sayers, registered nurse Viergina Bazile, licensed practical nurse Mary Martin, nursing assistant Melissa Frabizio, pharmacy aide Marilyn Bosso, and registered nurse Rachelle Givelekian.

From right, Cindy Lowenstein, clinical director of Specialty Hospital at Monmouth, is pictured with a group of health care team members from the Long Branch-based long term acute care hospital: registered nurse Dawn Pederson, nursing assistants Francis Nelson and Barbara Bayer, registered nurse Christine Pedraza, licensed practical nurse Kelly McQuillan, registered nurse Allan Guerra, advanced nurse practitioner Deborah Sperling, unit secretary Tina Flemming and registered nurse Greg Morgan.

LAKEWOOD, NJ, April 30, 2007 — What happens when an acute care hospital is ready to discharge a patient whose medical complex condition still requires intensive, personalized treatment — above the standard level of care delivered at a nursing home or long term rehabilitation center?

In recent years, these circumstances have given rise to a new specialized facility along the health care continuum. Long term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) are emerging as the optimum setting for critically ill patients who would benefit from a period of acute care that extends beyond 25 days.

In observance of National Hospital Week from May 6 to 12, AcuteCare Health System (ACHS) is applauding the experienced professionals who are delivering this special kind of care at its two 25-bed “hospital-within-a-hospital” facilities — Specialty Hospital at Kimball, located within Lakewood-based Kimball Medical Center, and Specialty Hospital at Monmouth, located within Long Branch-based Monmouth Medical Center.

“Under the 2007 National Hospital Week theme of ‘Care You Count On, People You Can Trust,’ we are extremely proud to join hundreds of hospitals across the United States in paying tribute to the commitment and professionalism of the members of our health care teams,” says Violeta Peters, R.N., M.A., chief executive officer of Specialty Hospitals, which are operated by ACHS, the region’s leading independent provider of hospital-based, long term care.

The Lakewood-based company’s two Specialty Hospitals are among eight fully licensed LTACHs in New Jersey that are currently in operation and required to meet the same stringent state and federal regulations as an acute care hospital.

“Our focus is to provide patients with the highest level of advanced care across the full spectrum of services — from diagnostic and medical treatment to rehabilitation and recovery so that patients can return home or be transferred to a facility offering a less acute level of care,” Peters says. “We are able to achieve this goal by assembling an extraordinary multidisciplinary team of health care professionals at each of our Specialty Hospitals.”

Cindy Lowenstein, M.A., M.S.N., APRN, B.C., CCRN, and Diane Stanaway, M.S.N., R.N., C.N.A., B.C., O.C.N., are clinical directors of Specialty Hospital at Monmouth and Specialty Hospital at Kimball, respectively. They orchestrate the delivery of each Specialty Hospital’s wide range of clinical services by a full complement of highly skilled practitioners that includes physicians, nurses, respiratory, physical, occupational and speech therapists, social workers, case managers, nutritionists and other health care professionals.

“Each team’s members are highly trained in their fields of expertise, primarily in the arena of high-acuity care and in other specialties that best meet our patients’ needs, including pulmonary care, complex wounds and infectious disease,” Lowenstein explains.

This is particularly significant, Lowenstein adds, since the majority of patients have more than one serious medical condition and require specialized, state-of the-art services, such as ventilator weaning, parenteral nutrition, respiratory and cardiac monitoring, dialysis, long term antibiotic therapy and wound care resulting from surgery, diabetes and pressure ulcers.

“Because our patients are with us for an extended length-of-stay, we can offer them care that is seamlessly delivered in a smaller, personalized environment — one that is ideal for promoting health and improved health,” Stanaway says. “We take extreme pride in the fact that we get to know our patients and their family members over the full course of their hospital stay with us. It’s important that we treat the entire person and not just their conditions. That’s our collective commitment to all our patients.”

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 .