LAKEWOOD — Kimball Medical Center will remain an affiliate of the Saint Barnabas Health Care System.
After stating late in 2008 that Kimball Medical Center, a 95-year-old medical facility on Route 9 in Lakewood, was seeking to become an independent, freestanding medical center and divest itself as an affiliate of the Saint Barnabas Health Care System, plans have changed.
Responding to a question from the Tri- Town News last week, Kristine A. Brown, the director of public relations for the Saint Barnabas Health Care System, provided the following statement: “For the past year, Kimball Medical Center’s Board of Trustees and the Saint Barnabas Health Care System have been working together to select the most effective way to ensure the viability of Kimball Medical Center. After a very thorough and comprehensive review process by all parties involved, it has been decided that Kimball Medical Center will remain an affiliate of the Saint Barnabas Health Care System.”
The Tri-Town News reported in December 2008 that negotiations for Kimball Medical Center to part ways with Saint Barnabas were expected to begin in January 2009.
Ray Shea, who was the chairman of the Kimball Medical Center board of trustees, said at the time that “there are a lot of complex issues, but we will explore all options that allow Kimball to remain a not-for-profit institution.”
Kimball Medical Center became a Saint Barnabas Health Care System affiliate in 1997.
Kimball Medical Center, formerly Paul Kimball Hospital and named after its founder, was established in 1913 and serves northern Ocean County and southern Monmouth County.
It is a 350-bed acute-care hospital with more than 450 physicians on its medical staff and nearly 1,000 employees. Annually, the medical facility cares for 53,000 emergency department visits, 17,000 inpatient and observation admissions, and 150,000 outpatient visits.