In Observance of National Nurses Week
SPECIALTY HOSPITALS APPLAUD ACCOMPLISHED NURSES
FOR LEADING CLINICAL EFFORTS IN LONG TERM ACUTE CARE
LAKEWOOD, NJ, May 6, 2006 — Experienced nurses are discovering a new world of professional opportunities, challenges and rewards in the emerging field of long term acute care.
This growing trend is exemplified at AcuteCare Health System (ACHS) Specialty Hospitals, where nurses possessing a wealth of clinical knowledge and expertise have attained leadership positions at both of its “hospital-within-a-hospital” facilities. In recognition of National Nurses Week from May 6 to May 12, the region’s leading independent provider of extended hospital care saluted the nurses who are members of its patient care teams.
“National Nurses Week provides us with the opportune time to commend our nurses and their unwavering commitment to our mission at Specialty Hospitals: To bring healing to patients who might otherwise be without hope,” says Violeta Peters, R.N., M.A., CEO of AcuteCare Health System.
Lakewood-based ACHS operates Specialty Hospital at Monmouth, located within Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, and Specialty Hospital at Kimball, located within Kimball Medical Center, Lakewood. Both 25-bed facilities are state licensed as long term acute care hospitals (LTACHs), which provide an intensive level of care to patients with complex medical conditions that require an extended period of treatment.
“Guided and mentored by our accomplished nurse managers, every member of our clinical teams delivers care with compassion and kindness, understanding that each patient is an individual who needs to be nurtured, encouraged and treated as family. That is the true reward of nursing excellence,” adds Peters, a Long Branch resident who has served in this top leadership position since the opening of Specialty Hospital at Monmouth in March 2004 and Specialty Hospital at Kimball in March 2005.
Cindy Lowenstein, M.S.N., APRN, CCRN, of Hazlet and LeeAnn Harmon, R.N., CLNC, of Manalapan are clinical directors of Specialty Hospital at Monmouth and Specialty Hospital at Kimball, respectively. They hold managerial and operational responsibility over each Specialty Hospital’s full range of clinical services for the treatment of medically complex conditions.
Deborah Sperling. R.N., M.S.N, APNC, of Brick is nurse practitioner at both facilities, responsible for stabilizing and managing acute and chronic illness for patients throughout the integrative course of treatment.
Two registered nurses serve as case managers for each Specialty Hospital — Tinton Falls resident Patricia Gaughran, R.N., M.A., at Kimball and Lake Como resident Margaret Rockwell, R.N., at Monmouth. They prepare patients and families for the transition from admission to Specialty Hospital through their extended stay to discharge, working to ensure a continuity of care across the spectrum of health care settings.
In recent years, LTACHs have been emerging as an effective option to fill the widening gap between two levels of care — short-term acute care hospitals, where the average length-of-stay is seven days, and other discharge placement options, including subacute care nursing facilities, which may lack the services needed to adequately care for patients with medically complex conditions.
Specialty Hospital patients require an extended hospital stay of 25 days or more and have one or more diagnoses that may include cardiovascular or cardiopulmonary disease, cancer, stroke, respiratory or kidney disorders, as well as complex health problems that require advanced wound care,” explains Hilary Michaels, R.N., M.S.N., ACHRN, executive director of Specialty Hospital at Kimball. Throughout her 20-year nursing career, the Toms River resident has specialized in the development and management of programs for the advancement of wound care, most recently serving as patient care director of a medical/surgical unit for hospitalized patients at Community Medical Center, Toms River.
To meet their comprehensive medical needs, each
Specialty Hospital offers the benefits of a more individualized hospital
setting, combined with such life-support services as ventilator weaning, complex
wound care, parenteral nutrition, respiratory and
cardiac monitoring, and dialysis.
“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 Peters, who previously worked for 15 years in managerial and administrative positions in hospitals, nursing homes and other residential care facilities dedicated to meeting the needs of older adults — the most recent being executive director of Applewood Estates, a continuing care retirement community in Freehold.
Throughout her 23-year career, Lowenstein has extensive experience in developing medical programs, including the launch of Wall-based Meridian Health System’s Pediatric Asthma Resource Center. Before joining Specialty Hospital, she served as a clinical nurse specialist in the complex care unit at Riverview Medical Center, Red Bank.
For the past 10 years, Harmon has held clinical and managerial positions in a wide variety of health care settings. Most recently, she served as assistant director of nursing at Amboy Care Center, Perth Amboy.
Sperling, an advanced practice nurse who has specialized in managing the needs of patients with complex medical conditions, spent more than 20 years in various clinical and nursing management positions at Monmouth Medical Center before joining Specialty Hospitals.
Gaughran came to Specialty Hospital at Kimball after being employed for 26 years at Monmouth Medical Center, where she primarily worked in the Emergency Department, including eight years as clinical director of emergency services.
Rockwell spent more than 17 years at Freehold-based CentraState Medical Center in nursing roles that encompassed medical/surgical, oncology, telemetry and, most recently, case management.
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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 .