JFK Univeristy Medical Center continues to be among the nations top hospitals evaluated by Healthgrades for superior clinical care and surgical outcomes. Healthgrades rates hospital performance using objective quality measures using clinical outcomes, patient safety as well as patient experience.
For six consecutive years, JFK University Medical Centers emergency medical services has been recognized for its efforts to improve systems of care and to rapidly identify patients with suspected heart attacks, promptly notify the medical center, and trigger an early response from the awaiting hospital care team.
JFK University Medical Centers JFK for Life program is accredited by the American College of Surgeons and is the only bariatric surgery provider in the area recognized for delivering the highest quality care by these leading insurance providers: Blue Cross, Aetna, Optum, and CIGNA.
JFK University Medical Centers cardiac accreditations ensure each patient receives the highest level of medical and surgical procedures. JFK is also the only HeartCARE designated hospital in New Jersey.
Our Stroke and Neurovascular Center is designated as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission. It was the first stroke center in the tri-state area to receive this designation. Earning the Gold Seal of Approval shows indicates a hospitals dedication to improving health care quality and safety.
Six weeks before her first baby was due, JulieAnne Butares persistent, painful contractions were chalked up to bad luck since her body showed no other signs that childbirth was imminent. But all bets were off just days later. In June 2020, JulieAnnes water broke while the occupational therapist atJFK University Medical Centerwas on the job helping a patient into his wheelchair.
With JFKsmaternity unitmere steps away, JulieAnne immediately reported the dramatic development to labor and delivery nurses. An exam confirmed JulieAnne was in preterm labor, and the situation quickly escalated as fetal monitoring revealed baby Emma to be in possible distress, her heart rate swinging from high to low.
I was in full PPEN95 mask, surgical mask, gown, the worksand pretty much crying behind my mask from the full-blown contractions while I was working with patients, recalls JulieAnne, 30. After they realized I was definitely in labor, it was a whirlwind.
Doctors decided JulieAnne would need an emergency C-section to deliver Emma, who would then be whisked to JFKs NICU. But first, JulieAnnes wife, Annmarie, was called to the hospital from the couples home an hour away in Lebanon, New Jersey. She arrived just in time to join her spouse in the operating room and greet their new daughter together.
Annmarie, a 2021 medical school graduate about to begin her surgical residency, was nervous about Emmas prematurity. Doctors told her the baby might not cry right away if her lungs werent working properly.
The umbilical cord had been wrapped around Emmas neck, but as soon as she got out, she screamed, so her lungs were clearly perfect, says Annmarie, who has been with JulieAnne since they were college students a decade ago. Both of us breathed a great sigh of relief.
Emma couldnt suck properly and quickly ran out of stamina to breast- or bottle-feed long enough to take in adequate nutrients. She also had trouble maintaining her body temperature and spent time in a heated isolette.
Adds Brittany Reid, M.D., director of neonatology at JFK: When youre born prematurely, you dont have that coordination of sucking, swallowing and breathing. Youre challenged to do that earlier than you otherwise would have to. Its a matter of endurance, and feeding is like a babys exercise.
By Emmas third day of life, her mothers agreed with doctors plans to insert a nasogastric tube through the babys nose to funnel nutrients to the stomach. Wanting desperately to breastfeed, the parents devised a plan with clinicians that met everyones needs: After short stints of skin-to-skin nursing, Emma received additional breast milk through her nasogastric tube that had been pumped earlier by JulieAnne.
Emma was truly what we call a feeder-and-grower, Dr. Reid says. Her main jobs in the NICU were really learning how to eat, growing to an adequate size and showing us she could maintain all her normal functions.
Visiting with Emma in the NICU for eight hours each day after JulieAnnes discharge, the mothers were overjoyed to provide much of her hands-on care as Emma quickly gained strength. The baby also underwent a day of phototherapy under special lights when she became jaundiced.
The nurses became like our best friends, Annmarie recalls. It was hard going into the hospital every day and not taking Emma home every night, but they made us feel so much better about every aspect of it.
At hospitals without a NICU, those babies have to be transferred to other sites and families are separated from their babies, she explains. At JFK, were able to keep parents and babies together for longer periods of time while a mom is still recovering from delivery.
Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care. Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 17 hospitals from Bergen to Ocean counties, which includes:
Additionally, the network has more than 500 patient care locations throughout the state which include ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, fitness and wellness centers, rehabilitation centers, urgent care centers and physician practice locations. Hackensack Meridian Health has more than 36,000 team members, and over 7,000 physicians and is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy, committed to the health and well-being of the communities it serves.
The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine opened in 2018, the first private medical school in New Jersey in more than 50 years where it welcomed its third class of students in 2020 to its campus in Nutley and Clifton.
Additionally, the network partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to find more cures for cancer faster while ensuring that patients have access to the highest quality, most individualized cancer care when and where they need it.
Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies.
Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 13 hospitals, including two academic medical centers, two childrens hospitals and nine community hospitals, physician practices, more than 120 ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, fitness and wellness centers, rehabilitation centers, and urgent care and after-hours centers.
Notable distinctions include having one of only five major academic medical centers in the nation to receive Healthgrades Americas 50 Best Hospitals Award for five or more consecutive years, the number one hospital in New Jersey as ranked by U.S. News and World Report, consistently achieving Magnet recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, recipient of the John M. Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety and Quality from The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum, a six-time recipient of Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work For, one of the 20 Best Workplaces in Health Care in the nation, and the number one Best Place to Work for Women. Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies.