MANAHAWKIN – The New Jersey Department of Health has licensed Hackensack Meridian Southern Ocean Medical Center to provide diagnostic cardiac catheterization for all patients.
Cardiac catheterization involves passing a small catheter through the body into a coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the heart muscle. Contrast dye is then injected into the catheter, and X-ray imaging shows areas of blockage or concern and monitors heart functions. This information is used to diagnose angina, heart failure, and heart valve disease and determines if treatment is needed either through medication, angioplasty, minimally invasive structural repair or open-heart surgery.
In May 2021, the New Jersey Department of Health enabled the state’s hospitals to begin an application process, including extensive data collection and a site survey, to receive licensure to become a full-service catheterization lab for diagnostic testing or add an elective angioplasty service to a preexisting emergency angioplasty service. Eight Hackensack Meridian Health medical centers in Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Hudson and Essex counties have applied for expanded services.
“This expansion of diagnostic services greatly benefits the residents of Manahawkin and the surrounding communities, as cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of disability and death for women and men,” said Kenneth N. Sable, M.D., MBA, FACEP, Hackensack Meridian Health regional president, southern market. “It also positions Southern Ocean to potentially apply for licensure as a provider of emergency angioplasty if warranted, giving residents experiencing a heart attack an additional provider to receive life-saving care close to home.”
In 2019, Southern Ocean Medical Center added a leading-edge angiography imaging system, the GE Innova IGS 540, to the medical center’s vascular, cardiac, and interventional radiology services, used to accurately diagnose heart, artery and valve diseases. Exercise, nuclear and Persantine/Lexiscan Nuclear Stress Tests are provided by the medical center as well as stress echocardiology and a 12-week cardiac rehabilitation program. The medical center’s freestanding Vascular Surgery and Vein Center provides specialized care and expert diagnosis of arterial and venous disease.
“Southern Ocean provides top notch diagnostic testing and a comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation program. The expansion of diagnostics will provide the community an even more complete cardiovascular program,” said Richard M. Neibart, M.D., FACS, clinical medical director, Cardiovascular Care Transformation Service, Hackensack Meridian Health and chief, Cardiac Surgery, Jersey Shore University Medical Center. “Southern Ocean’s patients, through the Hackensack Meridian network, are connected to a comprehensive range of leading-edge technologies treating heart disease and world-renowned cardiac experts, right here in New Jersey.”
Hackensack Meridian has developed an interdisciplinary team of award-winning heart specialists. Collaboratively, they provide a comprehensive state-wide program for identifying, treating and managing heart and vascular conditions for patients of all ages.
This includes providing life-saving cardiovascular care for the most complex patient cases at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, with Monmouth and Ocean counties’ only minimally invasive and open-heart surgery program and The Heart and Vascular Hospital at Hackensack University Medical Center, one of New Jersey’s few other open-heart surgery and minimally invasive programs.
For more information, visit hackensackmeridianhealth.org/services/cardiovascular. To schedule a CT Calcium Scoring scan, which provides early detection of heart attack risk, or for a free physician referral, call 844-HMH-WELL.
