BRICK TOWNSHIP — Around 750 people gathered to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center (OUMC) on Oct. 5 for a day including food trucks, games, a car show and tours of a medical helicopter.
Ocean University Medical Center President and Chief Hospital Executive Frank Citara told The Ocean Star, “Events like this are important to us because it gives us an opportunity to open up the campus to the community. It’s a great way for them to learn about the services here without having to be here for some kind of emergency.
According to Citara, there is only so much that can be done through advertising and marketing, but when people are able to visit the campus, can see and feel it, it’s a different story.
“The whole team here is very proud. We have 25 or 30 team members who have been here for 40 years and some who have been here since before this hospital was built, they were with Point Pleasant,” said Citara.
With a focus on the communities of southern Monmouth and northern Ocean Counties, OUMC – which opened in 1984 as Brick Hospital as part of the Northern Ocean Hospital System – started off with 120 beds and 200 physicians.
Having grown to more than 300 beds and some 800 providers, it is now a regional destination for orthopedic, cardiovascular, cancer, stroke and other care services.
The medical center described wanting to hold the event due to having achieved significant growth through the years and continually acknowledged for clinical excellence, Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center is celebrating 40 years of delivering transformative patient care.
OUMC is also home to the Johnson Rehabilitation Institute, a 40-bed facility that offers all-encompassing inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services – and the recently established Dr. Robert H. and Mary Ellen Harris Heart and Vascular Center, one of the state’s most advanced centers for heart and vascular diagnosis and treatment.
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