New Hospital, Cancer Center Coming To Tinton Falls: Everything You Need To Know

TINTON FALLS, NJ — A new 252-bed hospital is planned to open in Tinton Falls.

The hospital will be owned and operated by RWJBarnabas Health, and will be part of a 36-acre "medical campus" in the area of Pearl Harbor Avenue and Corregidor Road, in Fort Monmouth.

The new hospital will be called the Vogel Medical Campus. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with a scheduled completion in 2032.

Three years ago, RWJBarnabas paid $8 million to purchase those 36 acres on the former U.S. Army base, and plans to turn it into a sprawling medical campus, located very close to the major studio hub Netflix plans to open there. Related: RWJBarnabas Plans To Tear Down Some Buildings At Monmouth Medical Center

Here is everything you should know:

The Vogel Medical Campus is named after Sheldon Vogel, the former chief financial officer for Atlantic Records. Vogel, in his mid-90s and a Colts Neck resident, is a well-known Monmouth County philanthropist. He and his late wife have donated tens of millions in Monmouth County, including millions to the Monmouth County SPCA. The Vogel at the Count Basie theater in Red Bank is named after them.

The new hospital will have 70 OBGYN beds for labor and delivery, a pediatric PICU with 40 neonatal intensive care bassinets, pediatric hospital services, 36 critical care beds and 90 beds for overnight surgery. All patient rooms in the hospital will be private rooms.

There will be walking paths around the hospital and parking lots; the campus will have a "park-like setting."

The Vogel Medical Campus will also have a five-story, 150,000-square-foot cancer center, located next door to the hospital. The Cancer Care Center will operate in partnership with Rutgers Cancer Institute and is supposed to deliver the most cutting-edge oncology treatments, says RWJBarnabas. The cancer center is currently under construction and will likely be the first building to open; it is on track to open in late 2026.

To open this new hospital, RWJBarnabas has to transfer the existing hospital license from Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch. RWJBarnabas Health launched a website to explain the transition, called www.TransformingMonmouthHealth.org

Once that happens, Monmouth Medical Center will lose 151 hospital beds.

This move is getting heavy criticism from local congressman Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ6), because he said it will dramatically reduce services offered at Monmouth Medical Center. Related: RWJBarnabas Plans To Tear Down Some Buildings At Monmouth Medical Center

For example, once that license is transferred, women will no longer be able to deliver a baby at Monmouth Medical Center; all labor & delivery services will be relocated to Tinton Falls. There will also no longer be overnight surgery beds at Monmouth Medical Center; only an outpatient surgical center will remain.

Pallone said RWJBarnabas is taking healthcare services away from a poor area (Long Branch) and relocating its services closer to the wealthier towns of Colts Neck, Marlboro, Middletown, Holmdel and Rumson.

Pallone also said RWJBarnabas' eventual plan is to close Monmouth Medical Center entirely, and sell the hospital land to a developer.

RWJBarnabas said that is not correct, and that they intend to keep Monmouth Medical Center open as a healthcare facility. They said Monmouth Medical Center — which they started referring to as their "Long Branch campus" — will remain "vibrant."

Monmouth Medical Center will still have an ER, psychiatric health services, imaging services, clinics and overnight observation beds, in addition to other services, said RWJBarnabas.

In order to transfer the hospital license, RWJBarnabas Health first needs to hold a public hearing. That hearing was supposed to be at 4 p.m. this Wednesday at Ocean Place resort in Long Branch, but the New Jersey Department of Health abruptly canceled it, after Pallone said the state failed to give 14 days public notice of the hearing, which is required by law.

The hearing should be held in Long Branch, "the community losing its hospital," said Pallone.

The NJ Department of Health rescheduled the hearing to November 13, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the Anne Vogel Family Care and Wellness Center, located at 200 Wyckoff Road in Eatontown.

Pallone accused RWJBarnabas of colluding with Gov. Phil Murphy's administration to push through the hospital license transfer.

"This is as underhanded as it gets,” Pallone said Tuesday. “RWJBarnabas and the Murphy administration already got caught breaking state notice laws to keep the public in the dark, and now they’ve doubled down by holding the hearing during the workday and miles away from the people most affected ... 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.”

RWJBarnabas responded that Monmouth Medical Center has "aging infrastructure," something the hospital system has been aware of for decades.

Eric Carney, president and CEO of Monmouth Medical Center, said renovating Monmouth Medical Center would actually cost more than new construction, and take longer. He also said patient surveys from MMC show many people who go there live in Middletown, Tinton Falls, Marlboro and beyond.

The hospital should be more centrally located, he said.

"Emerging from the pandemic, the need for replacement facilities is all the more imperative," Carney wrote in a 2024 letter to the New Jersey Department of Health, when he first asked to transfer the hospital license.

"The Long Branch campus will continue to provide essential services, while the new acute-care hospital in Tinton Falls — with its close proximity to the Garden State Parkway — will bring Monmouth Medical Center’s nationally recognized clinical care closer to more people we serve across the county," Carney told NJBiz about the license transfer.

RWJBarnabas also previously pointed out the new Tinton Falls campus is only five miles up the Parkway from Monmouth Medical Center.

Last week: RWJ Barnabas Wants To Transfer Monmouth Medical Center's Hospital License To Tinton Falls