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.

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