opinion AnD CommentArY Collaboration, Commitment, And Expertise Meet Heart And Vascular Health Needs

By Frank J. Citara, MBA

It’s a privilege and an honor for me to lead Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center. While I am laser-focused day-to-day on making sure the hospital offers the most advanced services and technologies, runs smoothly, and delivers the highest quality of care possible, I must also have a vision of health care for the future of our community.

One of my top priorities is heart and vascular health, and for good reason: heart disease remains the leading cause of death in New Jersey and the United States (1). Despite the many life-saving technologies and innovations in cardiology and cardiac and vascular surgery over recent years, cardiovascular diseases claim the lives of too many Americans. In fact, more people died from cardiovascular-related causes in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, than in any year since 2003.(2)

Toward our goal to provide the most comprehensive heart and vascular services, the New Jersey Department of Health recently licensed Ocean University Medical Center to provide elective angioplasty and stenting, a procedure used by cardiologists to open clogged coronary arteries. Elective procedures have been provided the past several months, with patients receiving great care and getting home quickly to recuperate. This minimally invasive treatment restores blood supply to the heart muscle and helps prevent heart attack, heart failure, and other forms of heart disease.

Advanced vascular procedures are also provided at our medical center to manage veins and arteries in every part of the body, except the brain and heart. For example, vascular specialists clear obstructed arteries in the neck to prevent stroke, and utilize procedures such as TCAR, EVAR and other endovascular repair techniques.

As part of our response to providing outstanding heart and vascular health care services for the long-term, we invested in, planned, and constructed a new, comprehensive center:

The Dr. Robert H. and Mary Ellen Harris Heart & Vascular Center at Ocean University Medical Center, which will open its doors in spring 2023.

This state-of-the-art facility enables our teams of experts to provide diagnosis of cardiac and vascular conditions and offer immediate and advanced minimally invasive or complex surgical procedures. It has been in the works for more than five years and has benefitted from the involvement of philanthropists, patients, physicians, health care planners, technology experts, architects, designers, and many members of the health care team, such as nurses, technicians, and patient transporters.

The project’s nearly $20 million cost was made possible, in part, by generous donors, including the center’s namesake: Mary Ellen Harris, president of the Golden Dome Founda- tion, which she founded with her late husband, Dr. Robert H. Harris, to support charitable causes.

I also offer deep thanks to our Director of Cardiac Catheterization Ali Moosvi, M.D., and Frank Sharp, M.D., vascular surgeon from Jersey Coast Vascular Institute, for their clinical and technical expertise and vision of the health care of tomorrow as we planned this new facility.

The new heart and vascular center ushers in the next level of care for our community. It provides both cardiac and vascular modalities on one convenient floor - more than twice the size of current space - to address the growing number of cardiac and vascular procedures performed at the medical center. With over 17,000 square feet of space, the center features three multi-purpose rooms that allow for diagnosis and treatment of cardiac and vascular conditions in an environment that fosters collaborative treatment planning and options for optimal patient outcomes.

With the ability to have both diagnostic and minimally invasive surgical functions in one space, clinicians can diagnose heart and vascular conditions and offer immediate surgical treatment without delay, providing higher efficiency and safety for certain highrisk procedures, including elective angioplasty and stenting.

As testament to our commitment to high quality care, the medical center received the HeartCARE Center national distinction of excellence by the American College of Cardiology. This award recognizes commitment to world-class heart and vascular care through comprehensive process improvement, disease and procedure-specific accreditation, professional excellence, and community engagement. Ocean University Medical Center is the only hospital in Ocean County to earn this prestigious recognition.

It took great collaboration to achieve this national distinction, as well as complete the Dr. Robert H. and Mary Ellen Harris Heart & Vascular Center, and I am grateful to everyone who contributed to its realization. Our goal was to create a patient-friendly facility that could meet the growing health needs of the community, and I believe we have succeeded.

For more information about the new Dr. Robert H. and Mary Ellen Harris Heart & Vascular Center, visit hackensackmeridianhealth.org/ OUMC

References

1 cdc.gov>nchs>states Stats of the State of New Jersey – U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

2 American Heart Association 2023 Statistical Data Update

Mr. Citara serves as president and chief hospital executive of Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center in Brick.

Budget:

Continued From Page 5 been,” Bowen shared. “I only ask the Lacey Township School District value our dedication to the community and the children by keeping us full time…because our dedication is not part time.”

Some of the questions raised at the meeting concerned the cancellation of arts and athletic programs. District leaders said no concrete plans have been put into place regarding elimination of particular activities.

Some Background

According to Sharon Silvia, the district’s Business Administrator, the per pupil cost for Lacey students is $15,771 as compared to the state’s median cost of $17,008 in 2022.

Silvia also said Lacey Township Schools rank third from the bottom for K-12 districts

Snow:

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While our neighbors from Northern Jersey got more than five inches of snow on a couple of occasions this winter, here by the Shore we got the occasional flurries, around an inch of snow, and a whole lot of rain that used to be snow.

According to the New Jersey State Climatologist at Rutgers University, Dr. Dave Robinson, the reason for the lack of snowfall by the Shore can be attributed to the atmospheric pattern that has been prevalent for the past two to three months.

This pattern has favored a storm track that when it comes to administrative costs.

The first round of state funding cuts dates back to the 2018-2019 school year when the district lost $586,000 in state aid. Senate Bill S-2 made it legal for the state to redistribute aid according to a heavily disputed formula that deemed some communities as not contributing their “fair share” and others in need of additional funds.

This year alone, Lacey Schools received the tenth largest dollar decrease in state funding throughout the state. Three other Ocean County districts also made the top ten list. Local school districts are not permitted to raise property taxes more than 2 percent on an annual basis. A referendum may be placed on the ballot asking voters to approve increases in excess of the two percent. This has not yet been suggested as an action plan by the Lacey Board. The Township of follows the demarcation between polar air to the north and west, and subtropical (warmer) air to the south and the east. That demarcation line is also referred to as the jet stream. Storms tend to follow the path of the jet stream.

“When those storms track along the jet stream, the wind blows counter-clockwise around them,” said Robinson. “And if it’s to the west it brings warm air as the storm comes through.”

According to him, our area often fell on the warm side of the storms making it not cold enough to snow, thus creating a pattern.

In order for the shore to be blessed by a snowstorm, the storm has to travel to the east

Ocean (Waretown) School District was able to hold onto eight teachers last year after voters approved an increase in the tax levy by $840,000.

Lacey’s 2023-2024 tentative budget is set at $72,181,044, down by 16.51 percent from the 2022-2023 budget of $86,459,868.

Operating revenue for the Lacey Township School District’s 2022-2023 revised budget totaled $75,362,869. The 2023-2024 tentative budget shows reduced operating revenues of $66,669,473.

“When we take the taxes raised, and then compare that with the assessed value,” said Silvia. “The school tax rate for 2023 will be 1.394 percent.”

Silvia said the increase equates to about $5 per month based on the average house assessment in the community.

Looking For Solutions

to cause the counter-clockwise rotation to bring northern cold winds into the area. Those northern winds meet with the moisture of the nearby storm and create a snowstorm.

“That’s what you need along the coast in particular,” he said. “Because it keeps the wind’s direction from blowing off the water. Once that wind turns off to the water, coastal New Jersey tends to almost always go over to rain.”

While the atmospheric pattern can be pinned as the main reason for the lack of snowfall this winter, the pattern of climate change also has an effect.

According to Robinson, the overall global warming pattern is amplified in the shore and coastal areas. This pattern is likely tied to the ocean’s warming in the mid-Atlantic and the northeast.

Even before legislators proposed the supplemental aid that is still pending approval, the district began exploring resources. Senator Chris Connors and Assemblyman Gregory McGuckin have both offered their support at the state level. The Township Committee has also met with school representatives to work with them on a plan.

Pereira and other Ocean County superintendents recently met with the Commissioner of Education. They learned there is no mechanism that allows for amnesty.

Adequacy aid would help districts like Lacey that cannot come up with their local cost share without going over the two percent tax cap. Seven other school districts are due to receive that aid.

A link on the district’s website provides contact information for those who wish to send letters to advocate on behalf of students.

“We can be so influenced by conditions offshore,” he said. “We think that some of it is just a shift of wide-spread long-term patterns of circulation in the atmosphere but amplified of the fact the ocean waters at our coast are getting warmer.”

As for the possibility of snow becoming extinct in New Jersey, and especially by the shore, Robinson urges people to not give up on snow.

“We are a long way from seeing snow disappear in New Jersey,” he said.