State Health Board Not Ready To Vote On Relocating Monmouth Medical Center To Tinton Falls

LONG BRANCH, NJ — After an eight hour public hearing Thursday, the New Jersey State Health Planning Board decided they were not ready to make a decision on RWJBarnabas Health's application to relocate Monmouth Medical Center to Tinton Falls.

The State Health Planning Board, made up of doctors and public health experts from across the state, said they still need more information, such as how Long Branch's poorest residents will be impacted, whether RWJBarnabas will provide public transportation to the new hospital campus, and how staffing will be affected.

The State Health Board will make a decision at a later date. It did not say when.

RWJBarnabas Health, which owns Monmouth Medical Center, said they were "extremely disappointed" by the Board's failure to decide.

"We are extremely disappointed the State Health Planning Board decided not to act on the positive recommendation of the New Jersey Department of Health to approve Monmouth Medical Center's certificate of need application to build a new, state-of-the-art acute care hospital in Tinton Falls and make significant investments to upgrade and modernize the existing campus in Long Branch," said an RWJBarnabas Health spokesman. "We will continue to work through this process and address any additional questions the Board may have."

RWJBarnabas is currently building what it will call the Vogel Medical Campus on 36 acres in Tinton Falls; Monmouth Medical Center will relocate there. RWJ plans to relocate its award-winning Unterberg Children's Hospital there, plus its nationally-recognized labor & delivery, the pediatric PICU, specialty surgery, intensive care, cardiac care, stroke care and all cancer care. The cancer center, a five-story, 150,000-square-foot building, is scheduled to open first, in late 2026.

What will remain in Long Branch? RWJBarnabas Health said it will keep an ER there, nine sub-specialty hospital clinics, all psychiatric services and imaging. RWJBarnabas also 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.

Long Branch residents say it's a "hollowing out" of a hospital that has been an institution of that city for more than 100 years. Many Long Branch residents fear the land will ultimately become condos.

"After cutting off the hospital's legs, they will sell the land to the highest bidder," predicted one man.

Why can't RWJBarnabas maintain two hospitals, a new one in Tinton Falls and keep Monmouth Medical Center as a full hospital?

State law prohibits a healthcare provider from maintaining more than one hospital license in the same service area. Monmouth Medical Center CEO Eric Carney previously said RWJ looked into building a new, modern, state-of-the-art acute care hospital on the current footprint in Long Branch, but there just isn’t enough space and it would disrupt patient care, as construction would take an estimated 10 years.

The board heard passionate testimony from both sides for more than eight hours Thursday.

A retired Long Branch police officer told the State Health Planning Board his partner was shot, and having a top-notch hospital in town saved the man's life. He implored MMC to remain where it is.

"My partner was shot in Long Branch and that hospital being so close saved his life," he said.

Stephanie Ceylan, the director of nursing at Jersey Shore University Medical Center (owned by RWJ's arch-rival Hackensack Meridian Health) warned JSUMC will be "inundated" with patients if Monmouth Medical Center relocates.

"I respectfully urge you to deny this; I am deeply concerned," she said. "The patients who counted on Monmouth Medical Center will not disappear. They will just go to Jersey Shore."

"If Monmouth is gone, I'm switching to Hackensack," a Long Branch woman angrily told the board.

Hackensack Meridian Health warned the move will "destabilize healthcare across the region."

"The proposed move by RWJBarnabas Health would abandon a community that relies on its local hospital for critical services, including maternity care, cardiac emergencies and stroke treatment ... Removing a full-service hospital from Long Branch would create unacceptable risks," said Hackensack. "For decades, hospitals throughout New Jersey have undertaken significant renovation plans while continuing to care for patients. Facility improvements are not a reason to abandon Long Branch ... We are deeply concerned that this relocation would push Jersey Shore University Medical Center even further beyond capacity and, by duplicating hospital services in an already-served market, fragment patient volume in a way that jeopardizes Riverview Medical Center’s long-term economic viability."

But Ann Szapor, the chief nursing officer at Monmouth Medical Center, stood up and countered: "Our patient rooms at Monmouth Medical Center are over five decades old and they are shared rooms. These rooms can only be renovated so much. (The building) was not built for modern healthcare ... (The Tinton Falls hospital) will have state-of-the-art surgical suites and private recovery spaces."

All the rooms at the new hospital/cancer center will be private rooms, and all the rooms at Monmouth Medical Center will become private. (Currently, most patient rooms at MMC are shared rooms.)

Two women who've been treated for cancer at Monmouth Medical Center then spoke:

While undergoing chemotherapy, one woman testified how she had to share a room with a patient who was non-verbal and "could not control her bodily functions." Due to the chemo, her immunity was compromised, and she was "terrified" her roommate may spread an illness that could have killed her, she recalled. Another cancer survivor, also a woman, said she was "humiliated" to be examined in a shared hospital room, and said she prayed the thin curtain would give her privacy.

Dr. Kenneth Granet, the chief medical officer of Monmouth Medical Center, urged the state board to approve the license transfer, saying not only are the rooms at Monmouth Medical Center outdated, but the entire move will "transform" MMC, and allow it to provide higher quality healthcare to more Monmouth County residents.

Still, many others warned it will be the poorest residents of Long Branch who will hurt the most if Monmouth Medical Center relocates. The majority of patients at MMC receive Medicaid.

"The people who will suffer the most are the poor working-class," said one woman, a lifelong Long Branch resident. "The people most likely to lose their jobs are the workers who earn the least: the custodian staff, the patient support staff. They do not have cars. They are the workers who feed patients, clean rooms, sterilize equipment and keep the place functioning."

Another woman, who worked for decades in Long Branch public schools as a career counselor, pointed out that approximately 280 of Monmouth Medical Center's current employees live in Long Branch. She said the hospital is a major employer in the city, and she has guided many low-income students to careers there.

"The Long Branch school system has 5,000 students and more than 80 percent come from low-income families. You take away Monmouth Medical, you are taking away career paths and opportunities for local students," she warned.

And let's not forget about the traffic. The new Tinton Falls location is only five miles north, but residents said traffic, especially in the summer, can be a nightmare.

"You cannot get out of Long Branch on July 4," said one man, a Long Branch resident; a woman chimed in that traffic will only get worse when Netflix opens its planned studio campus in Eatontown.

"RWJ Barnabas, don't urinate on my back and tell me it's raining," said the man.

This area's congressman, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ6), who opposes the hospital relocation, said he's looking for a solution that would allow RWJBarnabas to keep acute-care hospital services in Long Branch while still building their new facility in Tinton Falls.

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

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