BRICK – Infectious disease services and palliative care programs have been launched by Willow Springs Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center on Burnt Tavern Road.
The 163-bed skilled nursing facility already provides post-hospital care, short-term rehab and long-term residential care. Now, it has teamed up with Marquis Health Services to offer more.
Dr. Ajay Mathur, MD, FACP, and Dr. Sukrut Dwivedi, DO, FACP, are overseeing Willow Springs’ infectious disease services, which focus on the identification, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Services include designing effective care and treatment plans for skilled nursing patients with a range of ailments, and educating the facility’s care team members on infectious diseases and proper protocols.
Dr. Mathur and Dr. Dwivedi maintain affiliations with Ocean Medical Center, Specialty Hospital of Central Jersey and Monmouth Medical Center, where Dr. Dwivedi serves as the section chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases. Both are consistent recipients of the “Top Doctors” recognition by New Jersey Monthly.
Dr. Mathur, who serves as the regional vice president of ID Care, volunteers on a national level with the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA); he also teaches medical students and resident physicians.
Dr. Dwivedi, who is a member of IDSA, serves as a clinical professor at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Assistant Professor at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University.
Under the direction of Dr. Vikranta Sharma, Willow Springs’ palliative care initiative focuses on improving quality of life for more compromised skilled nursing patients. Dr. Sharma is consulting with patients and their families on comfort care, symptom management and coordination of end-of-life planning.
Dr. Sharma is the medical director of hospice and palliative care at VNA Health Group, the state’s largest, not-for-profit community health provider of home health, hospice and community services. She is also the medical director of palliative care at Centrastate Healthcare System. In addition, Dr. Sharma serves on the steering committee for Conversation of Your Life and as a board member of the New Jersey Foundation of Aging. Previously, she was the associate hospice medical director for VITAS Innovative Hospice and the hospice medical director for Gentiva.
“Willow Springs is fortunate to have three well-respected physicians leading its new initiatives – both of which have been created to ensure the best possible outcome for skilled nursing patients,” said Marquis’ Pam Montemurno, regional director of marketing development.
