Toms River medical 'hub' will change how you get health care - Asbury Park Press

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TOMS RIVER - Now ringed by blue fencing, workers will soon start construction of a three-story medical building, to be shared by Community Medical Center and Children's Specialized Hospital, on Route 37 and St. Catherine Boulevard.

Crews will start preparing the nearly 8.7-acre parcel for construction later this month. The 86,000-square-foot building is expected to be open in early 2023. Children's Specialized Hospital and Community Medical Center are part of RWJBarnabas Health.

The building will serve as Community Medical Center's hub for the area around western Toms River, offering services including imaging, ambulatory surgery, pre-admission testing and physical and occupational therapy. RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group's primary care and orthopedic physicians will have offices there too.

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Children's Specialized Hospital will consolidate outpatient services, now located in offices on Lakehurst Road and Stevens Road in Toms River, at the new building. They include developmental and behavioral pediatrics, neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, psychiatry and psychology, and occupational, physical and speech therapy. An early intervention program office on Washington Street will move to the new building too.

"Our clinicians are really fired up about this new location," said Charles Chianese, vice president and chief operating officer for Children's Specialized Hospital. "It will incorporate state-of-the-art equipment to help kids reach their full potential. We are making significant investments in this facility and we're really excited about the potential that this site has to offer our parents and children." 

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It's all part of a trend that is unfolding around the area: cluster medical services in neighborhoods so patients don't need to go to the hospital for routine care such as physical therapy, lab work or X-rays. They are even popping up in retail centers.

"The real question is: 'Why are you bringing in all of these people (to the hospital) that just need some basic services?'" said Pat Ahearn, chief executive officer of Community Medical Center in Toms River. "Why battle the traffic? Let's bring the basic services out to them."

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Community Medical Center's has already opened hubs in a locations around Ocean County, offering primary care, physical therapy and lab services in part of a former Foodtown supermarket on Fischer Boulevard in Toms River and women's health services at Barnegat 67, an active adult and retail center right off the Garden State Parkway's exit 67. Six hubs are either open or in the works.

"If you're getting a knee replacement, why are we bringing you to a hospital?" Ahearn said. "Why not bring it to a surgery center?"

Children's Specialized Hospital's Chianese said the hospital just opened offices on Morris Avenue in Union, offering similar services as in Toms River, plus pediatric primary care. The hospital also expects to open RWJBarnabas Health Family Care & Wellness at Monmouth Mall in Eatontown in May or June, a project with Long Branch's Monmouth Medical Center.

At the new Toms River location, about 50,000 outpatient visits are expected in the first year, Chianese said.

"We're really trying to provide destination centers that aim to be convenient for our patients and families so that they can get a full array of services," he said. "For families, especially these days I think we can all agree, convenience and ease of receiving the proper care is what drives these initiatives."

David P. Willis, an award-winning business writer, has covered business and consumer news at the Asbury Park Press for more than 20 years. He writes APP.com's What's Going There column and can be reached at dwillis@gannettnj.com. Join his What's Going There page on Facebook for updates.