Riverview chief hospital executive Kelli O’Brien at a planning board hearing in February, 2019. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The top executive at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank has resigned and been replaced on an interim basis by a familiar face, redbankgreen has learned.
Riverview Medical Center as seen from the Navesink River in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
New signage marking Red Bank’s only hospital as ‘Hackensack Meridian Health Riverview Medical Center’ will include an illuminated sign on the Navesink River side of the facility, under a decision by the zoning board Thursday night.
A new 29,000-square-foot oncology center, including the dramatic 3,700-square-foot lobby above and at right, debuted at Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center Wednesday night, helped into existence by a $3 million donation by Carol Stillwell of Colts Neck. Philadelphia firm BTK Architects designed the $35 million project, which includes two new TrueBeam linear accelerators for radiotherapy and 22 beds for inpatient care.
The proposed 3,700-square-foot addition, at right above, will serve as a new entrance to the hospital’s oncology services area. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
With a wary eye on increasing competition in the cancer treatment area, Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center won approval for an expansion of its sprawling East Front Street facilities Monday night.
And as is often the case in town, a sticking point was parking.
The gift puts Riverview’s campaign to pay for a new day-stay surgery center past its $15 million goal. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Navesink couple is the latest in a string of wealthy donors to write a whopping check to help pay for a new surgical center at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, the hospital announced late Tuesday.
Richard Saker, the third-generation CEO of the Saker ShopRite chain, and his wife, Laura, have donated $1 million to the cause through the business, the hospital reports.
The commitment pushes the hospital’s campaign for the 22,000-square-foor surgery center “well past” its $15 million goal, the nonprofit said in its announcement.
The hospital has raised $6 million of its $15 million capital campaign from two Middletown couples. (File photo. Click to enlarge)
Little more than a week after disclosing it had received a $5 million donation toward a planned $15 million revamping of its operating rooms, Red Banks Riverview Medical Center announced Monday that another $1 million contribution had come in.
The donation, by George and Vita Kolber, of the Locust section of Middletown, will go toward the construction of a new 22,000-square foot “center for surgical excellence” within the exisiting footprint of the Red Bank hospital, officials said.
A $5 million donation by Kolber neighbors Bob & Joan Rechnitz, founders of the Two River Theater Company, is to be used for the same purpose.
Bob Rechnitz, right, with wife Joan and Two River Theater board member Paul Kaylor at Saturday night’s opening of ‘Candida.’ (Click to enlarge)
A planned $15 million revamping of the operating rooms at Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center has gotten a big boost from a Middletown couple.
Joan and Bob Rechnitz, founders of the nonprofit Two River Theater Company, have donated $5 million to the effort, the hospital announced Monday morning.
Riverview officials called it one of the largest single gifts in the hospital’s history, and said a portion of the funds would be used to construct a conference and educational center designed to attract “superior surgeons with niche specialties” to lectures and symposiums.
Riverview plans to add two surgical suites to handle a growing number of surgeries, officials say. (Click to enlarge)
Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center is planning a $15 million upgrade to its surgical facilities in coming months to meet rising demand, hospital officials announced Monday.
Expected to start this spring and to take some 16 months to complete, the work calls for the creation of two new high-tech surgical suites, bringing the total number of operating rooms to 12, says Riverview president Tim Hogan.
To make room for the new facilities at the east end of the third floor of the Blaisdell Pavilion, an existing same-day-surgery center will be relocated to the west end and modernized.
“This is a sizeable project for us,” Hogan tells redbankgreen.
Borough Clerk Laura Reinertsen in her office last April. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
All 15 candidates for Red Bank mayor and council in the May 9 election submitted the minimum number of valid petitions to get on the ballot, Clerk Laura Reinertsen told redbankgreen Tuesday.
Up next: a drawing to determine the order of names on the ballot in the historic nonpartisan election. More →
Fifteen candidates are expected be on the ballot for the May 9 election. (Photo by Red Bank Together. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Looks like Red Bank voters will have two mayoral candidates and 13 contenders for six council seats to choose from in the historic election scheduled for May 9.
Mayoral candidate Tim Hogan, seen here in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Riverview Medical Center president Tim Hogan says his day job would not present a conflict of interest should he succeed in his bid to become Red Bank’s mayor.
Also in borough politics: watchdog Sue Viscomi has announced another run for council in the May 9 special election.
From left: John Jackson, Jacqueline Sturdivant, Michael Ballard, Tim Hogan, Linda Hill, Erin Fleming and Sean Murphy. (Photo by Red Bank Together. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Three incumbent council Democrats have teamed up with the president of Riverview Medical Center in a bid to form Red Bank’s new government this summer.
The seven-member “Red Bank Together” slate is the second hoping to capture six council seats and the mayor’s chair in the May 9 special election.
The garage, built in 1983, became the subject of a lease-purchase deal between the town and Riverview 17 years later. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
It’s a mere formality, but Riverview Medical Center is slated to become the owner of Red Bank’s only publicly-owned parking garage Friday.
At its regular meeting Wednesday night, the borough council authorized officials to sign off on a property transfer worked out when the current council president was in middle school.
The deal adds to the nonprofit hospital’s growing portfolio of real estate.
Government consultant Ken DeRoberts will manage the agency. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council approved two of its own members and five other residents to constitute a new borough redevelopment agency Wednesday night.
From left, Regional Hospital President for Monmouth County Tim Hogan is joined by John Lloyd (president and C.E.O, Meridian Health), Tom Gravina (chairman, Riverview Foundation Board), Domenic DiPiero and his father, Domenic DiPiero Sr. (event host), and State Senator Joe Kyrillos during last year’s Family Fireworks on the Navesink.
Press release from Riverview Medical Center Foundation
Declaring that “it’s never been such a blast to support your local hospital,” the Riverview Medical Center Foundation Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the Second Annual Family Fireworks event on the Navesink River.
This fun-filled family event in support of Riverview Medical Center Foundation will be held at the beautiful DiPiero Family home, on the picturesque Navesink River, on Friday, June 27. Beginning at 6:30 pm, the evening will include a BBQ buffet, an array of food trucks, inflatable rides, games, and a breathtaking view of the fireworks show at 9:15 pm. This is an event for the entire family, with parents and grandparents encouraged to bring their children.
Scenes from the 2011 fireworks show, when police presence was ramped up following widespread brawling and drunkeness in 2010. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s largest public event, the annual KaBoom Fireworks show, is off for 2012 and facing steep barriers to a return, organizers said Wednesday morning.
The nonprofit show’s executive committee, after several months of mulling, concluded about a week ago that the costs and challenges of staging the event, which draws an estimated 100,000 visitors to the borough each July 3, could not be met this year, chairman Tim Hogan told redbankgreen.
“It was a victim of its own success,” Hogan said, with increasingly bigger crowds drawn to what was billed as the fourth-largest Independence Day fireworks celebration in America in terms of the number and size of shells lofted into the sky above the Navesink River.
“It was a big event,” he said. “It was a challenge to control the crowd and make sure we were providing security to the folks who came.”
A promotional video for the KaBOOM fireworks show. Below, Tim Hogan, new chairman of KaBoom’s executive committee. (Click to enlarge photo)
Coming off two years of financial challenges and crowd-control issues, the 2011 edition of the giant annual fireworks extravaganza known as KaBoomFest will feature a renewed focus on family entertainment and security, organizers say.
While some aspects of the event, including whether to repeat last year’s expansion from one to three days, remain undecided, KaBoom is on track to raise more money from corporate sponsors this year and is paying more attention to the importance of security, said Tim Hogan, president of Riverview Medical Center and chairman of KaBoom’s executive committee.
“We want to make sure that it’s safe and want to make sure that it’s family-friendly,” Hogan said.
Riverview Medical Center officials hope to bring a touch of the suite life to hospital stays.
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
You can get so much accomplished at Riverview Medical Center these days that a patient might be hard pressed to find a reason to go home.
The hospital launched a pilot program last month called Concierge Care, a comprehensive service designed to pamper patients and their visitors. Hospital brass say they spent 18 months investigating and designing the service with people from five-star hotels and resorts. Through a third party, the hospital has worked out deals with local businesses and vendors to offer what it calls hotel perks.
Need to get your car fixed? Want to get tickets to see a show at the Two River Theater? Rather order takeout from one of those pizza places in town than eat in the hospital commisary? The service will get it done for you.
Dr. Howard Rubinstein at the nursing station of the new ground-floor facility, which opens its doors March 17.
Howard Rubinstein remembers a childhood trip to a hospital emergency room in Rahway in the 1960s. He’d broken his arm and sat in pain while waiting for long delayed attention. But layered on top of the physical trauma was confusion at what was going on around him in that urban crucible of illness and injury.
“It really scared me,” he says.
A Tinton Falls resident and physician, Rubinstein now heads up emergency care at Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center, where next week he’ll help unveil the latest in care for kids: a dedicated emergency room, complete with Gameboy setups near every gurney.
The new pediatric care center is, to be sure, the product of many forces, including a precipitous drop in childhood hospital admissions in recent decades and the need for hospitals to compete as never before. But it’s also about a desire to make emergency care as pleasant an experience as possible for kids, Rubinstein says.
“We don’t want them in the ER with a code going on in one room and a drunk screaming in the next room,” he says.
Borough Attorney Ken Pringle, left, and partner Tom Hall at a Red Bank council meeting in July, 2007.
Because of questions raised by government watchdog Steve Fitzpatrick, the Red Bank Council has taken Pringle, Quinn & Anzana, its contracted law firm, off “the long-festering” case of 51 Monmouth Street, in the words of Mayor Pasquale Menna.
In place of firm attorneys Ken Pringle and Tom Hall, the council earlier this week named attorney John Bonnello of Mann & Bonello in Long Branch to handle the work. He’ll be paid the same hourly rate the Pringle firm was getting, said Menna.
Hall has been looking into the terms of the $1 transaction in which Kids Bridge, a precursor to the Community YMCA‘s Children’s Cultural Center, bought the longtime borough hall at 51 Monmouth Street in 2000.
The site of the former Worden-Hoidal Funeral Home on East Front Street, owned by Riverview Medical Center, is not covered by the deal.
After a year trying to knit together a consensus, Councilman Mike DuPont finally got a watered-down version of his plastic bag ordinance passed by the Red Bank governing body Monday night.
Also in the ‘done’ box following the council’s final session of 2008: an agreement under which Riverview Medical Center will up its annual payment in lieu of taxes to the borough.