Plans To Relocate Monmouth Medical Center To Tinton Falls: Public Meeting Thursday

EATONTOWN, NJ — RWJBarnabas Health would like to transfer Monmouth Medical Center's hospital license to a large medical campus it is building in Tinton Falls.

The New Jersey Department of Health (DOH) needs to sign off on the license transfer before it can proceed, and RWJBarnabas Health is required to hold a public hearing, which will be this Thursday in Eatontown.

The hearing will be from 4-6 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Anne Vogel Family Care and Wellness Center, 200 Wyckoff Road in Eatontown. All members of the public are invited to attend and give their thoughts on the hospital license transfer. The public's testimony will be taken into consideration by the state.

From the DOH, here is the public notice about the Nov. 13 meeting; the state also has many documents from RWJBarnabas about the hospital license transfer: https://web.doh.nj.gov/apps2/e...

RWJBarnabas is currently building its Vogel Medical Campus on 36 acres in Tinton Falls, with completion eyed for 2032. Monmouth Medical Center will relocate there.

It will be located in the area of Pearl Harbor Avenue and Corregidor Road, on the former Fort Monmouth U.S. Army base. RWJ plans to relocate the children's hospital from Monmouth Medical Center to Tinton Falls, plus labor & delivery, the pediatric PICU, specialty surgery, intensive care and all cancer care. Cancer care will be moved into a five-story, 150,000-square-foot cancer center that is currently under construction.

The Cancer Center will be the first building to open; it is on track to open in late 2026, said RWJBarnabas.

Congressman Frank Pallone opposes the hospital license transfer, which he says will result in reduced medical care for people who live in Long Branch, many of whom may not be able to drive 40 minutes up the Parkway to Tinton Falls. Pallone even blasted RWJBarnabas for holding Thursday's public hearing in Eatontown — "instead of in Long Branch, the community losing its hospital," he said.

"They’ve doubled down by holding the hearing during the workday and miles away from the people most affected," said Pallone. "They know this plan is indefensible, so they’re trying to bury it.But Long Branch residents see exactly what’s going on: the Murphy administration is helping a corporate hospital system chase profits and abandon the very people who built this institution. It’s disgraceful.”

"Every New Jerseyan should pay attention to this," Pallone warned. "If they can do this here, they can do it anywhere — walk away from a community that needs care and pocket the profits elsewhere."

As Patch previously reported, RWJBarnabas plans to tear down some buildings at Monmouth Medical Center and reduce the size of the hospital by 65 percent. Currently, Monmouth Medical Center is approximately one million square feet; RWJ plans to reduce it to 345,000 square feet.

This would happen in 2035 or later, Monmouth Medical Center President and CEO Eric Carney said in this Oct. 29 article. RWJBarnabas declined to answer when asked which buildings it plans to remove, saying the plan is still in the conceptual phase.

Certain wings of Monmouth Medical Center will be removed after MMC renovates its newest Todd and Stanley buildings, said Carney. Those renovations are expected to begin in 2033.

RWJBarnabas says Monmouth Medical Center will still have a full-service ER, 200+ hospital beds (many of those will be for psychiatric care), an outpatient surgery center, imaging services and specialty clinics. RWJ has begun to call Monmouth Medical Center its "Long Branch campus," which it says will complement its Tinton Falls campus.

Pallone says the ER will be a "satellite ER," and Monmouth Medical Center will be left with limited outpatient services.

New Hospital, Cancer Center Coming To Tinton Falls: Everything You Need To Know (Oct. 28)

RWJBarnabas Plans To Tear Down Some Buildings At Monmouth Medical Center (Oct. 29)