Here's How Bayshore Medical Center's New ER Will Look

HOLMDEL, NJ — This past July, we told you how Hackensack Meridian Health was planning to renovate and expand the emergency room at Bayshore Medical Center.

Now today, never-before-seen renderings of how the new ER will look have been released. This is an extremely ambitious project: Bayshore will be more than doubling the size of its existing ER, and the footprint will restructure the design of the hospital’s entire campus. The new ER will be 32,000 square feet and can accommodate more ambulances and patients than the existing emergency room, plus shorter emergency wait times.

“We’re really reinventing Bayshore Medical Center with this project,” said Frank Citara, Bayshore Medical Center's CEO. “We will finally have a facility as good as the people working within it. All of our team members are looking forward to these improvements, but the people who are really going to benefit are our patients. And that’s what it’s all about.”

Construction began Friday, and is expected to last 26 months. The first phases will see improvements made to the hospital’s rear parking lot and last approximately three months. Construction of the new building is scheduled to begin in January of 2020, and the new ER will open its doors in late 2021.

According to the Asbury Park Press, Bayshore was built to serve 12,000 patients a year, and it currently treats 32,000 patients a year. The opening of this new ER will enable Bayshore to treat 55,000 patients a year, according to Citara.

The new ER will have:

• 35 private patient bays
• Swing space with capacity for pediatric care
• New imaging (scanning) equipment just for ER patients.
• The facility will also feature an enlarged ambulance arrival area, which can accommodate up to six ambulances at once
• A new walk-in arrival with dedicated parking for ER patients.

The new ER will cost Hackensack Meridian Health system in total $48 million to construct. It will be named the Dr. Robert H. Harris Emergency Care Center thanks to an undisclosed donation made by the Golden Dome Foundation, a Middletown-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was founded in 2015 by Mary Ellen Harris and the late Dr. Robert H. Harris to support charitable causes.

The pledge to build the new ER is the largest in Bayshore Medical Center’s history.

“My husband, Robert, loved our community and Bayshore Medical Center,” said Mary Ellen Harris, his widow. “Supporting this important initiative will not only benefit our neighbors and the clinicians at the medical center, but will enhance care for patients, while leaving a lasting legacy in his honor.”

Bayshore had to first obtain approval from the Holmdel planning board to grant a variance relief to expand the ER.

Bayshore is part of the Hackensack Meridian Health network, which also owns nearby Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank. The hospital is located at 727 North Beers Street in Holmdel. The new ER will be located on the Garden State Parkway side of the campus, and is expected to offer decreased wait times.

Once the ER is completed, Bayshore will immediately begin renovations to the hospital’s new main entrance located on north side of the campus. The new main entrance will feature an enlarged lobby and seating area, creating what the hospital says will be a more relaxed, welcoming atmosphere for visitors.

Correction: Patch originally incorrectly reported the donation amount from the Golden Dome Foundation. The amount of the donation from the Harris family will not be disclosed. We regret the error.

Initial Patch report: Holmdel's Bayshore Medical Center To Expand ER