By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
FLORENCE — Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton has opened its second facility in the area, a family practice on East Front Street.
RWJ Medical Associates at Florence held a grand opening May 1 at the facility.
The practice, led by Dr. James A. Bancroft, joins RWJ’s other facility in the county, the Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Mansfield, which opened in 2009. The hospital has spent $1.5 million on the two local centers in an area — Northern Burlington County — that has no hospital of its own.
Anthony “Skip” Cimino, president and CEO of RWJ University Hospital in Hamilton, said the hospital sees the potential for growth in Northern Burlington County, which he said is the source of “a substantial number” of patients, physicians and employees for the system.
”We are very positive about the Northern Burlington County region,” he said.
That includes the potential to put one of RWJ’s Lakeview Child Center day-care facilities in the area.
”Given the growth that’s occurred in Northern Burlington County, I think it might be appropriate to put a child-care center down there as well,” he said. “We’re in the stages of development and contemplation of it now. I don’t know when we’ll come to conclusion at the moment, but we’re giving it very, very serious examination and consideration.”
The new Florence facility is an upgraded and expanded version of the office where Dr. Harry E. Manser Jr. practiced for 30 years before recently moving to RWJ’s main hospital campus in Hamilton. Along the Delaware River, the office features five examination rooms and is linked to the Mansfield center as well as the rest of the RWJ system.
”I’m happy to be here,” said Dr. Bancroft, who previously practiced at the RWJ Hamilton Occupational and Corporate Health Center. “It’s a true privilege to be able to form relationships with patients based on trust.”
Mr. Cimino said the RWJ system also has had the chance to interact with locals through the Mansfield elementary district and the Northern Burlington Regional middle and high school district as part of its childhood obesity program.
”It’s all part of just trying to bring very, very good quality patient care and service to that portion of the state,” Mr. Cimino said.
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