FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Violeta Peters, R.N., M.A.
Chief Executive Officer of AcuteCare Health System
732-923-5037
SPECIALTY HOSPITAL AT MONMOUTH MARKS FIVE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY WITH SUCCESSFUL
RECORD IN PROVIDING EXTENDED HOSPITAL CARE--
AcuteCare Health System Announces Expansion with Plans to Open Specialty
Hospital of New Jersey in Union
LONG BRANCH, NJ, March 31, 2009 — Five years ago, Specialty Hospital at
Monmouth became Monmouth County’s first “hospital-within-a-hospital,” offering
an innovative long term acute care setting for patients requiring intensive
treatment after a hospital stay.
Since then, a growing number of patients with medically complex conditions have
benefited from Specialty Hospital’s unique approach to comprehensive and
personalized care. Located within Monmouth Medical Center, the long term acute
health care hospital (LTACH) provides patients with advanced care for 25 days or
more through a full spectrum of programs that are coordinated by a highly
skilled clinical team.
As AcuteCare Health System (ACHS) marks the fifth anniversary of Specialty
Hospital at Monmouth, the 25-bed LTACH remains poised to continue along its path
of progress and success in bringing patients and their families renewed hope for
healing and improved health. Of the 665 patients admitted to the extended care
hospital since opening in March 2004, 635 have been discharged to a facility
offering a less acute level of care or have returned home.
“From the very beginning, we have been extremely proud of our record of
achievement in providing our patients with comprehensive and coordinated care
that is essential for recovery,” says Howard Lebowitz, M.D., chief medical
officer of Lakewood-based ACHS, which is recognized as the region’s leading
independent provider of hospital-based long term care.
ACHS operates Specialty Hospital at Monmouth and the 25-bed Specialty Hospital
at Kimball, which opened in 2005 at Kimball Medical Center in Lakewood. They 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. ACHS currently is in the planning stages to open its first
stand-alone LTACH — Specialty Hospital of New Jersey, a 50-bed facility to be
located at the former Union Hospital, 1000 Galloping Hill Road, Union.
Eddie Santiago, M.D., medical director of Specialty Hospital at Monmouth,
explains that many of its patients have more than one serious medical condition
and require individualized treatment after their release from an acute care
hospital’s intensive care unit. “We are committed to providing a proven
combination of high-tech medical care and a culture of caring that is unmatched
in this highly specialized setting that is emerging along the health care
continuum,” he says.
“One of our greatest accomplishments has been providing the ideal environment to
help patients on ventilators regain the ability to breathe on their own once
again,” Dr. Santiago continues. In 2008 alone, 63 percent of patients admitted
to Specialty Hospital with severe pulmonary problems were successfully weaned
from ventilator assistance before their discharge.
Violeta Peters, R.N., M.A., chief executive officer of ACHS, credits its
hospital-based medical group for providing patients with individualized care and
attention throughout the entire day. “As a result, our full-time physicians,
nurses, therapists and other caregivers just don’t see patients once a day, but
throughout the day,” she says. “Treatment plans can then be adjusted according
to the dynamic changes in their critical, medical progress. This is extremely
important not only to our patients, but to their family members who also need to
be kept informed about their conditions.”
Specialty Hospital’s full complement of health care practitioners includes
physicians, nurses, respiratory, physical, occupational and speech therapists,
social workers, case managers, nutritionists and other allied professionals.
“Many of our caregivers joined us upon our opening five years ago and have since
gained immeasurable experience in providing our special kind of care,” Peters
says.
Additionally, each team member is highly skilled in their field of expertise,
primarily in the arena of high-acuity care and in other specialties that best
meet patients’ needs — an important factor that contributes to improved outcomes
for a growing number of patients who require Specialty Hospital’s specialized,
state-of the-art services, including ventilator weaning, parenteral nutrition,
respiratory and cardiac monitoring, dialysis, long term antibiotic therapy and
wound care resulting from surgery, diabetes and pressure ulcers.
“Our shared commitment 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 adds.
“This dedication is embodied through a mutual understanding that each patient
deserves care that is delivered with compassion and kindness, and that every
patient is an individual who needs to be nurtured, encouraged and treated as
family.”
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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 .