Specialty hospital names new director

Pat Mezzina LONG BRANCH — Specialty Hospital at Monmouth has named a new clinical director with an accomplished record in bedside nursing and nursing management to oversee the facility located within Monmouth Medical Center.

Pat Mezzina, of Red Bank, recently joined AcuteCare Health System's (ACHS) Long Branch-based long-term acute-care hospital to oversee all nursing and patientcare services in the treatment of patients with medically complex conditions that require an extended hospital stay.

"We are extremely pleased to welcome Pat to lead our clinical team," said Violeta Peters, chief executive officer of ACHS. "Her wealth of nursing experience enhances our multidisciplinary approach to providing quality patient care. "While her professional expertise and clinical strengths benefit our highly trained team of caregivers, she is keenly focused on patient satisfaction to ensure that our patients receive individualized care and attention throughout their stay with us," Peters said, adding, "Pat embodies what the profession of nursing is all about — caring for people."

Lakewood-headquartered ACHS operates two "hospitalwithin a-hospital facilities" — Specialty Hospital at Monmouth, located within Monmouth Medical Center, and Specialty Hospital at Kimball, located within Kimball Medical Center in Lakewood.

Both 25-bed facilities are fully licensed by the state Department of Health and Senior Services to offer an intensive level of hospital-based care for 25 days or more, according to a press release from ACHS. With 22 years of nursing experience, Mezzina served as nurse manager of a 54-bed medical-surgical unit at Hoboken University Medical Center for eight years before joining Specialty Hospital at Monmouth. She was also a nurse manager of a 36-bed unit for patients with complex care needs at Elizabeth General Medical Center.

Mezzina received her nursing diploma from the Ann May School of Nursing at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, and earned her bachelor of science degree in nursing at Kean University.

For the first 10 years of her career,

she was a critical care nurse at Union Hospital and then at Elizabeth General Medical Center. She is nationally board certified by the American Nurses Credentialing

Center in medical-surgical nursing and nursing administration.

For more information about Specialty Hospital at Monmouth, call 732-923-5037 or visit the Web site at www.acutecarehs.com.

ACHS is a privately owned corporation formed in 2002 to establish and manage long-term acute-care hospitals, which provide diagnostic and medical treatment and rehabilitation to patients whose conditions are medically complex and require an average length of stay of 25 days or more.

Although ACHS's Specialty Hospital at Monmouth and Specialty Hospital a Kimball are located within major medical centers, they are independent entities designed to offer the benefits of a smaller, more individualized hospital setting, combined with such life-support services as ventilator weaning, complex wound care, parenteral nutrition, respiratory and cardiac monitoring, and dialysis, according to the release.