Overlook Medical Center Receives $1M Grant To Transform Maternity Care

SUMMIT, NJ — Overlook Medical Center in Summit recently received a $1 million grant from The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey to modernize its Frank & Mimi Walsh Maternity Center.

This grant will help realign services for women and families throughout the region, a growing number of whom have diverse backgrounds or come from underserved populations, according to Public Relations Manager Rob Seman.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey works to reduce disparities in the delivery of healthcare and improve access to quality healthcare for vulnerable populations in the greater Newark area, as well as the Jewish community of Greater MetroWest NJ.

The foundation selected this project at Overlook for its focus on addressing broad maternal health issues, as well as ending disparities in care for underserved populations.

“Our belief is that every family should receive high-quality, compassionate care when delivering a child, and this project will enable Overlook to deliver that level of care for generations to come,” said Michael Schmidt, executive director and CEO of the HealthcareFoundation of New Jersey.

The project will entail reconfiguring the maternity department, tripling the number of private rooms, enhancing the flow of patient-centered care and establishing new resources for families, according to the hospital's announcement.

Construction for this project already began this year and is anticipated to take about two years to complete.

Emre Kayaalp, the chair of obstetrics and gynecology, and Stacy Anne Mehciz, director of nursing for women and children’s health services, who both joined Overlook this year to lead the maternity center, said the reconfiguration of the center provides the opportunity to "more fully address the changing maternity needs of families who are turning to Overlook."

"Overlook has increasingly become the destination for care for new and growing families. This
requires not only that we grow and modernize, but also that we tailor our services to more
efficiently deliver maternity care for these families and their babies,” Kayaalp said.

While births are trending down nationally, Overlook has seen an uptick in deliveries over the past
two years. During the initial peak of the pandemic, Overlook reported an influx of patients from
outside its usual area, including from New York City.

Overlook delivered 2,325 babies in 2020 and 2,560 babies in 2021. Currently, Overlook is on track to have 2,625 births in 2022.

“As our volume of patients has increased, so too has the number of families of diverse
backgrounds, and underserved populations,” said Mehciz. “With the reconfiguration of our physical space and the delivery of care, we can make a real difference in helping these families access high quality care, and ultimately, better outcomes from the start of their babies’ lives.”

According to the Nurture NJ Strategic Plan, New Jersey has the fourth highest maternal mortality rate in the United States, and black women in NJ are seven times more likely to die from pregnancy-associated causes than white women.

This maternity project aims to build a safe, high-quality and equitable continuum of care for all pregnant and postpartum mothers, particularly Overlook’s growing population of high-risk patients.

Here's a full breakdown of what the project entails:

• Reconfiguring the maternity center’s floorplan to create a contiguous flow between the labor and delivery and postpartum units, and the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)
• Renovation of all labor and delivery rooms
• Creating 37 fully private postpartum rooms
• Creating a new four-bay triage and assessment area
• Creating a dual high-risk antepartum and postpartum area with four private rooms and critical diagnostic tools

The project also includes initiatives beyond physical construction, such as:

• Optimizing prenatal and postpartum care, with a targeted approach to reduce risk for vulnerable populations
• Continuing to offer virtual postpartum visits, implemented during the initial wave of COVID-19
• Optimizing the operations of Overlook’s HealthStart Clinic (a medical service for vulnerable women and their children)
• Leveraging the New Jersey Perinatal Quality Collaborative’s Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM)

To learn more about the OverLook Ahead campaign, visit: www.overlookfoundation.org.

To learn more about The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, visit www.hfnj.org.

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