By Sunayana Prabhu
LONG BRANCH – State approval of RWJBarnabas Health’s plan to relocate essential medical facilities, including maternity and acute care services, from Monmouth Medical Center (MMC) in Long Branch to a new 36-acre campus in Tinton Falls has been postponed, at least for now.
The New Jersey State Health Planning Board deferred the vote on the future of the hospital’s 135-year-old Long Branch campus following a nearly eight-hour public hearing Dec. 4. The marathon meeting started at 10 a.m. with Michael Kennedy, the executive director of the New Jersey Department of Health, Division of Certificate of Need and Licensing, recommending the board approve the application with certain conditions.
But the meeting ended with deferred action, as hundreds of residents pleaded with them to reject the proposal.
Around 6:30 p.m., board members returned from a brief executive session and called for further analysis. Board member Stephanie Carey moved to defer, citing four major concerns: health care equity; transportation options for vulnerable populations to ensure access to health care; staffing impacts; and maintenance requirements for the Satellite Emergency Department that will remain in Long Branch.
“We had a lengthy discussion, and we are not prepared to take action on this application tonight,” said Kevin Slavin, M.D., another board member.
Hospital officials pressed for a final decision.
“There is no more information coming,” said George Helmy, executive vice president and chief of external affairs and policy for RWJBarnabas Health (RWJBH). “We’ve already answered it. It’s clear, frankly, that many people haven’t read the information provided.”
Helmy reminded the board that the state had already recommended advancing the Certificate of Need application and urged the board to vote, even if that meant rejecting the application. “I would ask you to not defer, but to take action,” Helmy said.
However, the board unanimously decided to defer the vote with no date announced for the next meeting. The Health Planning Board will weigh testimony and staff analysis before making a recommendation to Jeffrey Brown, the state health commissioner, who will issue the final decision.
Following the board’s decision, RWJBH put out the following statement:
“We are extremely disappointed that the State Health Planning Board decided not to act on the positive recommendation of the New Jersey Department of Health to approve Monmouth Medical Center’s Certificate of Need application to build a new, state-of-the-art acute care hospital in Tinton Falls and make significant investments to upgrade and modernize the existing campus in Long Branch. We will continue to work through this process and address any additional questions the Board may have.
“We look forward to sharing more about how our vision for transformative health care will bring world-class care closer to home for more patients by delivering the latest advanced technology, treatments, and innovative academic medicine in new, modern health centers of excellence.”
U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6), who testified from Trenton during the hearing, said, “RWJ Barnabas’ plan to close the Long Branch hospital puts profits over people. Period. They are abandoning a poorer, more diverse city for a significantly wealthier, less diverse suburb.”
In a statement Wednesday, Hackensack Meridian Health applauded the board’s decision to defer the vote.
The statement said “removing a full-service hospital from Long Branch would create unacceptable risks” for patients and “push Jersey Shore University Medical Center even further beyond capacity and, by duplicating hospital services in an already-served market, fragment patient volume in a way that jeopardizes Riverview Medical Center’s long-term economic viability.”
The Process So Far
RWJBarnabas Health, which owns the 13-acre Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, plans to modernize and expand its services in Monmouth County. In 2022, RWJBH purchased 36 acres in Tinton Falls on former Fort Monmouth property – including the Myer research facility, now the Ann Vogel Medical Campus – to support hospital growth.
MMC’s initial application, submitted in April 2024, proposed dividing the mandatory services between the two locations under one single hospital license. This proposal would have resulted in two acute care hospitals, the existing one in Long Branch and the new one in Tinton Falls.
This proposal, however, was amended in February 2025 to instead relocate all mandatory acute care services from the existing hospital in Long Branch to a new 252-bed acute care hospital at the former U.S. military installation in Tinton Falls, approximately 6.5 miles west of the Long Branch facility, by 2027. The proposed new hospital’s projected cost is $857 million.
The MMC’s certificate of need application to advance the amended proposal was deemed complete by the state Department of Health in October, meaning it met the requirements for review.
The state Health Planning Board then conducted two mandatory public hearings to review testimony. The first public meeting was held Nov. 22 at the Ann Vogel Medical building’s conference room; the second was held Dec. 4 in Trenton and livestreamed to the Long Branch Senior Center. Board members heard hundreds of sharply divided statements from residents, elected officials and hospital employees for more than 12 hours over both meetings.
Many Long Branch residents shared how Monmouth Medical Center has been a lifeline for them and their families, recounting deeply personal stories of lives saved and vital care received.
Top executives, physicians and nurses from MMC defended the relocation, citing outdated infrastructure, space limitations and the need for upgraded emergency, behavioral health and surgical services.
The Relocation Plan
In its application, RWJBH said the Long Branch campus would be revitalized and licensed as a hospital-based, off-site ambulatory care facility offering a satellite emergency department, a patient observation unit, imaging services, inpatient psychiatric beds, an outpatient surgery center and outpatient clinics. The distribution of services at each location per RWJBH’s proposal is as follows:
Tinton Falls Campus
• 90 medical/surgical beds
• 36 adult ICU/CCU beds
• 70 OB/GYN beds
• 11 pediatric beds
• 5 pediatric ICU beds
• 23 intensive NICU bassinets
• 8 intermediate NICU bassinets
Long Branch Campus
• 25 closed adult psychiatric beds
• 19 open adult psychiatric beds
• 24-bed observation unit
• Satellite Emergency Department (SED)
• All inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services
• Imaging services
• Outpatient surgery and specialty clinics
Transportation services will be available between the two sites for the convenience of patients, staff, family members, and caregivers.
RWJBarnabas has argued that major renovations to the Long Branch campus would be costly and disruptive, and that the planned Tinton Falls facility would support the region’s long-term health care needs.
The health planning board has not yet set a date for a final vote, but its next meeting is expected in January.
The article originally appeared in the December 11 – 17, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
