When people need immediate medical care, emergency departments must act quickly and efficiently. But what happens when an ED outgrows its capacity? That was the challenge at Monmouth Medical Center until a recent renovation, because the number of patients using the facility was sharply on the
rise. “The last time the department had an overhaul was back in 1987, when we saw just 27,000 patients a year,” says Catherine Hanlon, M.D., Monmouth’s chair
of emergency medicine. Now that number has soared to a record 54,000 patients a year.
When Barbara Marcus of Old Bridge was diagnosed last fall with fibroids and a prolapsed—or dropped—uterus, bladder and rectum, her gynecologist wanted to perform major abdominal surgery to correct the condition. But she wasn’t ready.
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