Riverview Medical Center's Air Conditioning Breaks, Patients Moved

RED BANK, NJ — Some of the air conditioning units at Riverview Medical Center stopped working Wednesday morning — in the middle of summer's most severe heat wave — and patients are being relocated to other hospitals, according to a hospital spokesman.

It is unclear in what sections of the hospital the air conditioning is not working. Patients are being moved to parts of the hospital that do have air conditioning as well as to other nearby area hospitals.

Monmouth County Sheriff's officers also responded and set up six emergency air conditioning units at the hospital.

Riverview Medical Center is a 468-bed hospital located on the Navesink River in Red Bank. It is owned by Hackensack Meridian Health network, the largest hospital system in the state.

"This morning, some of the air conditioning units at Hackensack Meridian Riverview Medical Center went offline," said the Riverview spokesman. "Our teams are working to make the necessary repairs to bring these systems online as soon as possible. The safety of our patients and teams is our priority."

"In an effort to ensure the continued comfort and care of our patients within the impacted areas, we are transferring patients to non-impacted areas of the hospital as well as neighboring Hackensack Meridian Health facilities," he added.

It is currently unknown what caused the air conditioning units to break.

The office of Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden posted photos to Facebook of all the agencies responding to Riverview Wednesday morning, including the NJ EMS Task Force, Monmouth County EMS Coordinators and Red Bank and Neptune Twp. OEM.

"A failure occurred in the air conditioning system at Riverview’s emergency room this morning, and resulted in the diversion of affected patients," posted the county Sheriff. "The Monmouth and Middlesex County Medical Ambulance Buses are on scene to assist. Thanks to all for this continued team effort in ensuring the utmost of health and safety to patients during this oppressive heat."