Plan in works for new
health awareness center
BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — These are busy times on the campus of Centra-State Medical Center, West Main Street.
In addition to making plans to start a residency program at the hospital, CentraState Healthcare System, which operates the medical center, is planning to build a 150,000-square-foot health awareness center.
The new building will be three times the size of the Medical Arts Building that recently opened on the medical center’s campus. It will replace a much smaller health awareness center on Gibson Place.
According to John T. Gribbin, president and CEO of CentraState Health-care System, administrators are planning what he called an ambulatory campus of one or more buildings which would work together to offer outpatient-type services.
"We’re trying to create more of a campus feeling," he said, adding that the plan is to bring the health awareness center, which at this point is a temporary name, into that campus.
"It will be built west of the hospital on property we are acquiring from Verizon. The application is in front of the Freehold Township zoning board at the moment. We have to get some subdivisions done," he said.
Although the tract totals about 77 acres, Gribbin said only 3 or 4 acres will be developed at this stage. The rest of the land will be left for future uses.
The new structure would be attached to the hospital, would likely be three or four stories high and set back a bit, he said, adding that administrators hope the building will be done in about two years.
"We’ll be putting in a medical fitness program with a gym, a pool and a health club. It will have offices for physicians and cardiac diagnostic services. We are also going to move the dialysis program out of the hospital. It will enable us to renovate the space that program vacates and add some additional beds and fix our critical care unit without having to build additional inpatient space. It gets us more space quicker and at less cost," he said.
Gribbin said the staff is excited about all of these ventures. In addition to making plans to build a new health awareness center, CentraState Healthcare System is doubling the capacity of the hospital’s emergency department, expanding the Applewood Estates life care retirement community and improving its information technology system.
"We’re converting to a web-based system designed for physicians to use directly in order to create a safer environment and to eliminate errors. Medical care is very complex and drug therapy is very powerful. We’re investing about $8 million in a new computer system," the president said.