Bayshore Hospital Gets $5 Million Gift, Largest Ever

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HOLMDEL – Bayshore Community Hospital and Meridian Health Affiliated Foundations has received a $5 million charitable contribution from Janice Mitchell Vassar, whose sole desire, in her words, is to “make my hospital the best hospital it can be.”

Janice Mitchell Vassar made a gift of $5 million to Bayshore Community Hospital and Meridian Health Affiliated Foundation. The gift is the largest ever donated to the Holmdel hospital.
Janice Mitchell Vassar made a gift of $5 million to Bayshore Community Hospital and Meridian Health Affiliated Foundation. The gift is the largest ever donated to the Holmdel hospital.

Given in honor of the memory of her brother, Ashby John Mitchell, Vassar’s gift will propel Bayshore Community Hospi­tal’s vision to significantly grow cardiovascular services, as well as enhance access to services for the vision impaired throughout the communities Meridian Health serves. The donation stands as the largest single gift to Bayshore and marks the second $5 million gift to Meridian Health within the last year.
“This gift touches so many things that are dear to my heart,” Vassar said. “Through my gift to Meridian Health I am able to create an ongoing resource for the vision impaired and, in memory of beloved brother Ashby, I am able to be a part of Bayshore’s exciting future and help my hospital provide the best cardiac services to our community.”
A significant portion of the donation will be used to fund the expansion of Bayshore’s cardiovascular services, speci­fi­cally the construction of two new state-of-the-art heart and vascular labs. As part of the Meridian Cardiovascular Net­work and through its strong relationship with Jersey Shore University Medi­cal Center, a recognized leader in open-heart surgery in New Jersey, cardiovascular services have become a signature service at Bayshore.
“There is no more profound way to give back to a community in its entirety than to give to your community hospital,” said David Flood, president of the Meridian Health Affiliated Founda­tions. “As we continue to grow the breadth and depth of services at Bayshore Community Hospital, Mrs. Vassar’s gift will create a lasting legacy, and is already serving as a catalyst for other community leaders to lend their support.”
Timothy J. Hogan, regional president of Bayshore Com­munity Hospital and Riverview Medical Center, said, “Mrs. Vassar’s gift supports our vision to continually advance care at Bayshore and marks the beginning of a project that will change the landscape of cardiovascular care in our community.”
The gift also continues Vassar’s dedication to helping the vision impaired with the remainder of the donation funding a dedicated outreach coordinator, free screenings, educational programs, access to community resources through the Taking Care of New Jersey mobile health unit, new technologies and aids for the vision impaired and an internship that will provide students with hands-on experience working with patients with disabilities including the blind and vision impaired.
Vassar’s keen interest in health care and helping the vision impaired is born of strong family ties. Her father, John William Boyd Mitchell, was an accomplished newspaper editor who endured a personal battle with glaucoma. His dedication to his work was not stopped by the disease, as Mitchell’s family, including Vassar’s sister, Lois Roberta Mitchell, would read the current events to him so he could dictate important editorials for the Hudson Dispatch – then the second largest morning newspaper in the state.
Vassar’s husband Hervey Provost Vassar, whose ancestors founded Vassar College and Vassar Brothers Hospital, shared her passion for serving the vision impaired, helping Vassar create the Vassar Eye Center at Bayshore in 1995.
In 2001, the John William Boyd and Kathryn Roberta Mitchell Pavilion at Bayshore was named in dedication to her parents. With this gift, Vassar honors her brother, Ashby John Mitchell, and invests in a vision to move Bayshore forward.
“Janice Mitchell Vassar is an extraordinary woman,” said John Lloyd, president and CEO of Meridian Health. “She has honored her family’s legacy of philanthropy and public service through so many kind deeds and good works of her own. Her personal legacy will be strongly tied to the phenomenal changes and bright future at Bayshore Community Hospital.”
There are plans to begin construction on two new heart and vascular labs this year. In 2012, Bayshore’s catheterization lab met stringent requirements to become designated as a full-service catheterization lab. Bayshore also applied to the state Department of Health and Senior Services and was granted the permission to develop and implement a Primary Angioplasty program, which will begin in the first half of 2013.
Additional information about Bayshore Community Hospital is available by visiting www.bayshorehospital. org or calling 732-739-5900.
Bayshore Community Hos­pi­tal, a member of the Meri­dian Health Family, is a 211-bed not-for-profit community hospital providing health care programs and services in all major medical disciplines.