Meridian Health Completes Merger with Bayshore Community Hospital
Merger with region's leading not-for-profit health provider positions 238-bed Holmdel hospital and affiliates for future success.
- (1888PressRelease) February 12, 2011 - Neptune, NJ - Meridian Health has completed its merger with Bayshore Community Hospital and Health Services, with the Holmdel-based hospital and health care affiliates officially joining the Neptune-based Meridian system as of September 1, 2010.
The merger follows state approval and over a year of due diligence review. Through the merger, Meridian and Bayshore will utilize their combined talent and resources to enhance access to care and improve clinical quality and service to the community, decrease costs through shared efficiencies and purchasing opportunities, and provide new academic and research opportunities for physicians, nurses, and clinicians.
"We are very excited to welcome the trustees, physicians, nurses, team members, and volunteers of Bayshore to the Meridian team," says John K. Lloyd, FACHE, president, Meridian Health. "With shared missions and values, this partnership will provide many benefits to patients, including expansion of services currently available at Bayshore and enhanced access to the full continuum of services available at Meridian in a coordinated and seamless fashion."
Meridian Health includes Jersey Shore University Medical Center and K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital in Neptune, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, and Southern Ocean County Hospital in Manahawkin.
"This merger signals a new beginning for Bayshore," says Ivan Brown, chair, Board of Trustees, Bayshore Community Health Services. "Meridian has an excellent reputation on the local and national level for clinical quality, service, and team member and physician engagement. By joining with Meridian, Bayshore is very well-positioned for future success in providing our patients with direct access to a complete network of the state's best health care services."
Michael Schwartz, a highly experienced hospital leader has been appointed executive director for the hospital during the anticipated 12-month transition period following the announcement of Raimonda Clark, president of Bayshore leaving the organization in August to pursue other career opportunities.
"We thank Raimonda Clark for her many years of dedicated service in caring for this community," says Lloyd.
Schwartz most recently served as president of Prince William Health System in Virginia, and in the early 1990s served as executive vice president and chief operating officer at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. As executive director, he will oversee daily operations at Bayshore, collaborating with physicians, managers, and team members during the transition process aligning Meridian and Bayshore operations.
"While we do not anticipate drastic changes overnight, we will use this period to examine hospital services that are excelling as well as those areas that need additional support," says Lloyd. "Our goal is to ensure that Bayshore continues to advance in its clinical care and service to the community and is well-positioned for the future."
To align Bayshore and Meridian strategy, Timothy Hogan, FACHE, president of Meridian's Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank will lead the Bayshore leadership team in long-term strategic planning and medical staff initiatives. Hogan will also lead the evaluation of a potential regional hospital model for Bayshore and Riverview.
This approach would be predominantly an administrative and operational structure, maintaining senior leadership at each hospital to make decisions in the best interest of quality patient care and to support the medical staff, while strategically aligning Bayshore and Riverview through a shared administrative structure, budget and strategic plan.
The regional hospital model has been a successful approach with health systems across the country, and was identified during the merger process as potentially having the most benefit to both hospitals. The evaluation of this regional hospital model is expected to continue through the next 12 months.
In welcoming Bayshore, Meridian Health now employs over 11,000 team members, is affiliated with over 2,000 physicians, offers over 1,700 acute hospital beds, and serves over 74,000 annual inpatient admissions.
The newly completed merger will be celebrated at Bayshore on September 1 with Meridian hosting breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Bayshore physicians, team members, and volunteers, with special "town hall" meetings for all team members also being held throughout the following two days.
"Bayshore is home to dedicated physicians and a team of exceptional health care professionals who have continued to work very hard to provide excellent care for their patients," says Lloyd. "Our aim is to support this team, keeping them well-informed as partners throughout this transition and leveraging Meridian's resources and expertise to achieve even greater efficiencies and quality."
Meridian is among the state's most comprehensive not-for-profit health care providers, which includes its four acute care hospitals, children's hospital, and health care services that include home care and hospice agencies; skilled nursing and sub-acute care facilities; physician practices; rehabilitation and fitness centers; occupational health services; home medical equipment and in-home safety technology; ambulance and medical transportation services; as well as outpatient laboratory, imaging, and surgery centers.
Meridian Health has been ranked among the state's top performing health systems for quality and was the first health system in the country to receive Magnet designation for nursing excellence by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, a distinction earned by less than 3% of hospitals nationwide. This year, Meridian was named among the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work for in the United States, and has regularly been named one of the "Best Places to Work in New Jersey by NJBiz. Meridian Health is also one of the few hospital providers in the nation to receive the prestigious John M. Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety and Quality, and has for many years been named as one of the nation's Most Wired health systems.
During the past 37 years, Bayshore Community Hospital has grown its facilities and services to include the Bayshore Health Care and Rehabilitation Center and The Willows Assisted Living in Holmdel, as well as ambulatory specialty centers and fitness facilities throughout Monmouth and Middlesex counties. Affiliated with the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Bayshore Community Hospital is also home to several specialty care units for surgical, intensive and transitional care; eye care; wound care; and balance, and has been continually recognized among top performers for core quality measures.
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