Mark Manigan, President & CEO, RWJBaranbas Health
Mark Manigan, president and CEO of RWJBaranbas Health, spoke with Invest: about new projects and the importance of a working relationship with the city of New Brunswick.
What is the vision behind the RWJBarnabas Health Ambulatory Medical Pavilion project, and how does it complement your broader care delivery strategy?
The RWJBarnabas Health Ambulatory Medical Pavilion embodies the evolution of the relationship between RWJBarnabas Health, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Rutgers Health to deliver destination academic medicine, together in a single location, for patients with complex disease. The facility is located on the academic medical campus in New Brunswick and directly connected to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, which is a quaternary care center and New Jersey’s largest academic medical center. RWJUH, which includes the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital and the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center, is the nexus of the academic health system through our partnership with Rutgers University. It provides the highest levels of care for our sickest patients, supporting all RWJBarnabas Health facilities and ambulatory centers through research, education, and multidisciplinary medicine.
What makes the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center unique as the state’s first freestanding cancer hospital, and how will it transform cancer care?
As the first and only freestanding cancer hospital in New Jersey, and one of just 13 in the nation, the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center is a unique and transformative milestone. As part of a $1.5 billion investment from RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute, the state’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, this facility brings every element of cancer care together. The Morris Cancer Center features inpatient and outpatient services, advanced diagnostics, surgical and infusion suites, pediatric care, on-site research laboratories, and more, all within a unified setting designed to deliver truly comprehensive care to our communities.
This fully integrated, academic-based environment enables clinicians and scientists to work side by side to bring the most advanced treatment options directly to the bedside. By streamlining access to therapies, clinical trials, and nationally recognized expertise, the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center is transforming how cancer care is delivered, not only in New Brunswick but across the region. It reinforces our unwavering commitment to creating a healthier New Jersey by ensuring patients can receive world-class care close to home. What happens here will raise the standard of cancer care and improve lives in New Jersey and beyond.
How is the longstanding relationship between New Brunswick and RWJBarnabas Health advancing health outcomes and community wellbeing?
RWJBarnabas Health’s noble mission to build and sustain healthier communities extends well beyond hospital walls. RWJBarnabas Health and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) work closely with the city of New Brunswick and the New Brunswick Board of Education on a broad range of initiatives addressing wellness and preventative care, economic opportunity, education, and food insecurity. For example, RWJUH works with its city partners to offer a robust range of health and wellness programs and support groups focusing on topics such as maternal health and wellness, domestic and traumatic violence, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, along with several vaccination and fitness and wellness programs. RWJUH also partners with businesses and community-based organizations to offer healthcare employment skills and career training for local youth, and also works closely with the city to address food insecurity through a maternal wellness food pantry, planting-to-end-hunger vegetable garden, the Suydam Street Reformed Church pantry, and an annual holiday turkey distribution. For more than 30 years, RWJUH has partnered with the New Brunswick Board of Education to offer the Health Professionals Scholars Program to students at New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School, which stands on land donated by RWJUH in 2000.
