News

News Release

For Release:  January 16, 2013

Contact:         Karen Lippai, Public Relations/Marketing (732) 294-7080

CentraState Adds Hospitalist Service to Provide Around-the-Clock Care for Kids

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP— CentraState Medical Center recently added a staff of hospitalists to its Pediatric Unit, ensuring a board-certified pediatrician is immediately available, around-the-clock, for children who need to be admitted to the hospital. 

Pediatric hospitalists specialize in inpatient care for kids. They work closely with a child’s primary pediatrician to deliver the best possible care during a hospital stay.

“We launched this service so that kids in the CentraState area didn’t have to travel long distances to get a high level of hospital care,” says Anthony Marino, MD, medical director of Maternal/Child Services at CentraState Medical Center. “We can provide care for the most common conditions that may require a hospital stay, while coordinating follow-up care with a child’s community pediatrician.”

CentraState is one of the few community hospitals in central New Jersey to offer a pediatric hospitalist program, Dr. Marino says. It is also among the select hospitals to have three attending pediatricians in house at all times – a pediatric emergency medicine specialist, a pediatric hospitalist, and a neonatologist. This ensures a full continuum of quality care, no matter how a child enters the hospital.

“A child will come to the ED, be evaluated and treated and then a decision is made whether that child can be discharged or needs to be admitted for continuing care,” says Dr. Marino, a board certified neonatologist. “With the hospitalist program, we now will always have a pediatrician up on the pediatric floor ready to take care of that child.”

Hospitalists currently involved in the program include Klara Galperina, DO; Pankaj M. Doshi, MD; Rudrani Belnekar, MD; and Kendria Hall, MD.

The hospitalist program is just the latest enhancement to CentraState’s Pediatric Services, which include:

• A 12-bed Pediatric Unit located in a separate wing of the hospital’s third floor. Staffed by specially trained nurses, it provides a soothing, home-like atmosphere with unlimited visiting hours for parents and amenities such as spacious private and semi-private rooms, recreation rooms and access to a kitchen and food preparation area.
• The Star and Barry Tobias Emergency Pediatric Care area of the  Emergency Department. Staffed with board-certified pediatricians with emergency room training, it includes five private rooms decorated in child-friendly themes and amenities such as a family relaxation room.
• The Colette Cipriano Special Care Nursery. Staffed by neonatologists and highly skilled nurses who are neonatal resuscitation program certified and on duty 24/7, it provides individualized and compassionate care for babies born with special needs.

“With CentraState’s inpatient Pediatric Services and the outstanding primary care physicians in our area, there’s no reason a family has to travel far for community pediatric care,” Dr. Marino says.

CentraState Healthcare System is a non-profit community health organization consisting of an acute-care hospital, a health and wellness campus, three senior living communities, a charitable foundation and a Family Medicine Residency Program, sponsored by UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

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CentraState Healthcare System
901 West Main Street | Freehold, New Jersey 07728 | 732-431-2000