Riverview Medical Center’s emergency room entrance as seen in May, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See Update below.
By JOHN T. WARD
A malfunctioning air conditioning system prompted the temporary closure of the emergency room at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank Wednesday.
A municipal boat ramp on the Navesink River was once envisioned for the north end of Maple Avenue, now a nature area called Maple Cove. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials boasted earlier this month that they’d “cobbled together” about $1 million from idle accounts to soften the impact on taxpayers of repairing the long-shuttered Senior Center.
It turns out a big chunk of that sum has been stuck in the borough’s sofa cushions for 30 years, designated for a never-built boat ramp, redbankgreen has learned.
A video created by a Philadelphia architectural firm shows a vastly expanded Riverview Medical Center campus. (Video by BKT Architects. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Over more than a dozen years of amassing Red Bank real estate, officials at Riverview Medical Center have been silent on an obvious question: what do they plan to do with their growing land bank?
They’re still not saying. But someone went to the expense of hiring an architecture and urban planning firm to come up with blue-sky concept plans for Riverview, redbankgreen has learned. And he just made a killing selling the hospital some real estate.
The prices of vacant lots quadrupled in less than four years when they were sold to Riverview in late December. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The latest addition to Riverview Medical Center’s Red Bank real estate holdings yielded a windfall gain for the seller, redbankgreen has learned.
Why the hospital paid a whopping price for the site remains unanswered.
The agreement ends a lawsuit alleging the hospital illegally connected its Blaisdell Pavilion to the borough water system. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Under a “confidential” settlement approved by the borough council last week, Riverview Medical Center will pay Red Bank just $850,000 for water and sewer usage the town contended in a lawsuit was worth at least $5.3 million.
The hospital also will get 10 more years to pay off the obligation, some of which dates to 1984.
A temporary tent outside Riverview Medical Center’s emergency room entrance in May. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The current resurgence in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in New Jersey is not having an adverse impact on the hospital network that includes Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center, the organization said in a statement Thursday.
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.
A lawsuit filed by the borough alleges an illegal water connection to the Blaisdell Pavilion, at right. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Riverview Medical Center owes Red Bank $5.3 million for at least half a billion gallons of water consumed over a 33-year period, the borough alleges in a lawsuit.
In its January, 2019 complaint, the town contends the hospital hid an illegal connection and meter when it built the Blaisdell Pavilion wing in 1984.
The East Front Street hospital denies the allegations, and the dispute appears headed to mediation.
Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank said it has begun checking all visitors for indications of the COVID-19 coronavirus. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Jim Scavone, left, with Mayor Pasquale Menna and Visitors Center director Margaret Mass at the opening of RiverCenter’s offices on Broad Street in October, 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Jim Scavone, who led Red Bank RiverCenter for the past six years, is leaving the downtown promotion organization.
He won’t be going far, though: he’s taking a job at Hackensack Meridian Health at Riverview Medical Center, just on the edge of special improvement district he managed.
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.
The borough council is expected to choose a consultant next week to assess parking needs in downtown Red Bank. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Stalled since the November election, an effort to address parking issues in downtown Red Bank appears about to get back on track next week.
That’s when the borough council is expected to designate a parking consultant, to be paid for in part with funds from Red Bank RiverCenter.
RiverCenter’s founding chairman wants the agency to help finance a second garage to go along with the Globe Street facility, above, which is leased to Riverview Medical Center. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A discussion of Red Bank RiverCenter‘s 2017 budget Wednesday night focused mostly on how much juice the downtown promotion agency is using to address a parking shortfall.
At the borough council’s semimonthly meeting, two past RiverCenter chairmen suggested the answer is “not enough.”
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 entrance to Riverview Medical Center as seen earlier this month. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s Riverview Medical Center was ranked among the worst hospitals in the nation at preventing illnesses and injuries in their facilities, according to a government report issued last week.
As a result, Riverview and three other Monmouth and Ocean county hospitals will lose one percent of their Medicare reimbursements for the fiscal year that started in October under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
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.
Now in its second year, the Family Fireworks Show, featuring some 1,500 shells launched from a barge, capped a fundraising party for Riverview Medical Center at the Navesink River Road home of Rose DiPiero.
“The main thing is that we’ve got fireworks back on the Navesink, and it’s good for the community and for a good cause,” said Dominick DiPiero III, one of the event’s hosts. (Photos by John T. Ward and Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
The gift is the latest in a series of million-dollar donations to the Red Bank hospital’s foundation. (Click to enlarge)
Spotlight-avoiding donors have dropped $5 million into the coffers of Riverview Medical Center‘s foundation, the latest in a recent series of big-dollar contributions to the Red Bank facility.
Here’s the announcement, issued late Monday afternoon:
Two River Theater Company founders Joan and Bob Rechnitz, who donated $5 million last year to a capital campaign for Riverview Medical Center, at the dedication ceremony Wednesday night of a new conference center they helped pay for.
The hall, dubbed the Rechnitz Conference and Education Center, is available for community use, hospital officials said. (Photo by Stacie Fanelli. Click to enlarge)
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.
With the number of surgeries performed up 20 percent in the past three years, Riverview Medical Center opens the doors to phase one of a $15 million upgrade to its surgical facilities Monday.
Located in the third floor of the Blaisdell Pavilion and overlooking the Navesink River, the Red Bank hospital’s new “surgical day-stay” features 21 semi-private and two private rooms for patient recovery from same-day procedures, replacing a dormitory-style setup.
Due in September are two high-tech surgical suites, which will bring the number of operating rooms to 12 and complete the project. Hospital employees themselves contributed $374,000 to a capital campaign for the project, a spokesman said. (Click to enlarge)
A contractor removed the pink line from the middle of Broad Street Saturday; below, the stripe as it appeared on June 1. (Above photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
The faded-but-still-pink line running down Broad Street in Red Bank has become a sure sign: Paint the Town Pink was here. A long time ago, even.
The pink traffic line, part of Riverview Medical Center and RiverCenter‘s annual campaign to promote breast cancer awareness, has tended to last well beyond the week of PR-heavy activities within the borough. In fact, much of the the stripe from the 2010 edition was still present when a new one was laid down for this year’s event, which concluded almost six weeks ago.
But responding to criticism from towns that participate in the annual event Red Bank, Fair Haven and Monmouth Beach Riverview says it’s de-pinking the roads.
In Red Bank, the line is already gone, and Fair Haven’s is soon to follow.
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.
New Jersey’s state appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a back-injury patient who claimed doctors at Riverview Medical Center failed to inform him of x-rays showing he also had a large kidney stone.
In its decision of last Thursday, the Appellate Division ruled that a Superior Court judge was correct to dismiss a medical negligence claim by John Cifaretto, who underwent a series of treatments for the stone and claimed he suffered permanent kidney damage.
