|
Each year, The Beth provides care to 21,000 adult patients in our hospital and 163,341 adult patients in our outpatient settings. True to our original mission, we provide health care to all who need our services, providing them with the highest quality care from compassionate doctors, nurses and staff. As you will see from the examples shared below, the support of caring individuals and organizations allows us to make a tremendous difference in the lives of our patients.
Kimberly’s Room Kimberly’s Room is a very special place for heart transplant patients and their families. Created to have the feel of home, it allows patients who are hospitalized while waiting for a heart, to have a comfortable place to relax with families and friends -- or even to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, births, or any other special occasions. Patients and families love that this special get-away seems like a little living room and dining area, complete with a soft sofa, a television, a computer, a dining table and chairs, a refrigerator, a microwave, and more. We could not have created Kimberly’s Room without the generosity of Kimberly Lifeline.
For information about MAA’S Walk, an event benefitting Kimberly's Room, click here.
Because of our long-standing reputation, the quality of our patient-focused care and the quality of our physicians, NBIMC is the cancer and blood disorders center of choice in Newark, and a distinct draw for patients throughout New Jersey. Built for 4,000 visits a year, our cancer center now has patients coming for 14,000 visits a year. We must expand our current physical environment in order to meet the needs of our patients, grow our programs, hire more physicians and staff, and offer patients a pleasant, calming environment.
FREDERICK B. COHEN, MD
Many types of cancer, which once meant prolonged suffering and likely death, are now treatable. Many patients, who in the past would have been given a small chance to live, are now beating, indeed changing, the odds for survival from this terrible disease. These changes, these incredible advances, are the result of the work of dedicated men and women who became pioneers in the practice of oncology. A practice that, thanks in large part to the vision and dedication of Dr. Fred Cohen, has important roots in Northern New Jersey. In 1965 Dr. Cohen opened a Cancer Clinic at NBIMC – the first in New Jersey. His dream of creating a place where patients with cancer would receive the most modern of treatment under the guidance of physicians trained in the latest modalities, where patients would feel confident that they would be provided with world-class care without leaving the state, was initiated. With guidance from his mentor, Dr. Jack York, Dr. Cohen started the first formal weekly tumor conference in New Jersey at NBIMC, which brings together a cross-section of physicians and other treatment specialists to plan the best course of treatment for the patient. It is still in existence today. Drs. Cohen and York began the first oncology fellowship program in New Jersey so that they could train young doctors to follow in their footsteps. Dr. Cohen’s dedication to cancer care and treatment was so strong that he was appointed by former New Jersey Governor Kean to become the chairman of the New Jersey State Commission on Cancer Research. It is no wonder then, that here in New Jersey Dr. Fred Cohen is often referred to as the “Father of Cancer Treatment.” Dr. Cohen’s contributions to the field and his dedication to his patients has certainly paid dividends. He has helped thousands of people to survive the onset of this dreaded illness. His reward is in the lives he has saved and the families he has touched over the past four decades of service to the community. It is for his dedication to work and his devotion to his patients that we are creating the Frederick B. Cohen, MD, Cancer and Blood Disorder Center to honor our friend Dr. Cohen.
Many women face breast cancer, a disease which can take its toll physically and emotionally. Thanks to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, North Jersey Affiliate, NBIMC has been able to offer many women with breast cancer the ability to obtain wigs and prostheses which helps them to feel good about themselves during what is often a very challenging time. A grant from The Komen Foundation has also made it possible for NBIMC to offer breast cancer patients a dedicated social worker to help them with the many issues they face throughout the course of diagnosis and treatment. A three-year grant of from The Avon Foundation will further strengthen NBIMC’s breast cancer care capabilities by supporting a bilingual (English/Spanish-speaking) Nurse Practitioner and administrative assistant.
Alice Cohen, MD, Director, Hematology/Oncology, NBIMC with Avon Foundation presentation check
Pancreas Transplant- A diseased pancreas, usually the result of diabetes, leaves a person dependent on insulin injections for life. Even then, the progression of the disease may cause serious degenerative illnesses. A patient who undergoes a successful pancreas transplant can experience a whole new life and may even find that effects of the disease have reversed themselves. Thanks to a generous grant from The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center has initiated its pancreatic transplant program.
Within our complex bodies, there is much that can go wrong. Often the smallest element can cause great havoc. The challenge is to find that small element, quickly and accurately so that a correct diagnosis can be made and treatment can begin. Imaging, which ranges from MRIs and CTs to the familiar X-ray, allows the physician to look inside the body and find the area that is causing distress. With the advent of digital radiography, that search has become faster and much more precise. Thanks to a grant from The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, the digital x-ray machine at NBIMC allows physicians to examine the picture, zoom in close on an area, look at the area from different angles and have several physicians evaluate the same image at the same time even though these physicians may be hundreds or thousands of miles away from each other.
NBIMC Executive Director Paul Mertz, with PATIENT CARE
SURGERY/OPERATING ROOM NBIMC has embarked upon an ambitious renovation of its Surgical Suites. When completed, we will have created larger pre-operative care areas and provided more major operating rooms that are larger in size. These larger ORs will better accommodate advanced technology and multi-disciplinary teams needed for complex surgical cases, which are on the rise. Additionally, increased endoscopy capabilities will allow physicians to perform more minimally invasive procedures. Overall The Beth’s surgical facilities will be made larger, more versatile and uniformly excellent, with advanced technology and enhanced access for patients and surgical teams.
Since its founding in 1901, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center has been dedicated to caring for the elderly in a scientific and compassionate manner. In 1987, The Beth began developing a progressive and comprehensive array of geriatric services. Today, these services are unified in the Division of Geriatrics with shared leadership and a common vision. The Division of Geriatrics at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center is dedicated to bringing first class health care to the older adults of Newark and surrounding communities. Three full-time physicians, all board certified in both Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, lead inter-disciplinary teams, with nurse practitioners, social workers, nutritionists and other professionals. Staff, including physicians, make home visits when medically necessary or to get an accurate assessment of the patient in their home environment. The Division of Geriatrics not only provides extensive patient care services in its outpatient setting, The Center for Geriatric Health Care; the team also provides care for seniors in patient homes; and in the Geriatric Inpatient Unit at NBIMC, it has a unique relationship with thousands of senior citizens in the greater Newark community via the SWAT program. “SWAT is a word that hardly conjures up images of women making banana pudding in a kitchen hospital or going out into the community to encourage healthy habits among senior citizens. But that’s how Mary James, Geraldine Vick and Celestia “CC” Conway spend 19 hours of their time each week”. (Star Ledger, May 1,2003) SWAT (Senior Wellness Action Team) is a tremendously successful community outreach program made possible by grant funding from The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey. The SWAT Team provides seniors in 11 senior housing sites in the Newark area the opportunity to participate in health education and exercise programs, and to receive regular health screening. More than 2,400 seniors have taken part in these programs, which range from Exercise classes led by Senior Ambassadors, to Fall Risk Assessment and Prevention and Nutritional Management of Diseases, with many other important and timely programs too.
The Integrative Cardiac Wellness Program at the Saint Barnabas Heart Center at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center combines state-of-the-art medical technology with the healing therapies of complementary medicine to provide the most progressive help possible to patients with cardiac disease. Through a generous grant from The Medtronic Foundation, men and women undergoing cardiac surgery can participate in this program, which includes:
For more information about the Saint Barnabas Heart Center at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, click here.
Cardiac patient receiving reflexology
[ top ] |
   |
||||||||
There was a time not long ago when the onset of many types of cancer meant certain death - a time when there was little knowledge of the disease and even less of its treatment. It has only been over the past four decades that we have begun to turn the tides in our battle against cancer. 
Heart Transplant - One donor, who prefers to remain anonymous, provided the funds to purchase a portable echocardiogram machine for the Heart Transplant Program. For the 800 patients who visit our heart transplant and cardiac failure outpatient center every year, this machine allows them to undergo the needed testing on the spot, with no waiting and quick results.
The New York Times has selected Elizabeth Ann (Betty Ann) Izzo, a psychiatric nurse in Newark Beth Israel’s Behavioral Health Unit, as one of the best nurses in the entire country! Betty Ann was one of four nurses featured in an article in The Times’special section on the nursing profession on November 7th . 
Nursing Spectrum Magazine chose Rosemarie Acuna as the 2004 National Nurse of the Year! Rosemarie was nominated for her exceptional dedication to her patients and her personal contribution to the nursing profession. Rosemarie’s 20 years of on-the-job experience as a dialysis nurse and educator and her own personal experience as a hemodialysis-dependent patient, and later a kidney-transplant patient, place her in the unusual position of truly understanding a dialysis patient’s needs. Her clinical expertise, her compassion for others, and her own courageous struggle with kidney disease make her an exemplary advocate for patients and nurses alike. 
Surgery by its nature is an invasive procedure, yet with technology that is available today, we are able to perform surgeries that are less invasive than ever before. When the operating rooms at NBIMC were originally designed 35 years ago, minimally invasive and mechanically assisted surgeries were more in the realm of science fiction than medical science. No one would have guessed that a physician could use a robot to surgically replace a heart valve or to correct a child’s urological condition, yet that is precisely what is happening here at The Beth today. 
