An Atlantic Health System hospital finished work on a new facility that brings together its pediatric emergency and inpatient services in one space.

Overlook Medical Center in Summit marked the completion of the Hersh Children’s Center with hospital and local elected officials, donors and other supporters who celebrated the milestone during a Thursday ceremony.

“This state-of-the-art facility gives us a home for the future of pediatric care at Overlook – one that truly compliments the experienced care team and advanced technology that serve our patients at Overlook,” said hospital President Stephanie Schwartz, who was named to the position on Dec. 2.

At nearly 12,000 square feet, the Hersh center brings together the Meri and Sol Barer Inpatient Pediatric Center – which previously occupied the sixth floor at Overlook – and the Michael Gordon Reeves Pediatric Emergency Department. It will treat patients from 0 – 21 years of age.

Overlook’s chair of pediatrics and medical director of children’s health for Atlantic Health, Dr. Walter Rosenfeld, called attention to the unique nature of the approach to care.

“By bringing emergency and inpatient pediatric services together we can dramatically reduce the time between an emergency department visit to an inpatient room for children requiring hospitalization,” he said. “It will also improve continuity of care by having clinical teams dedicated to patients from the moment they enter, through every stage of their experience.”

Funding for the center came, in part, from a $2 million grant from the Dorothy B. Hersh Foundation. Established in 1972, the organization supports capital expenditures to benefit New Jersey children.

Another $2.5 million from the Nicholas J. and Anna K. Bouras Foundation funded the relocation of the Michael Gordon Reeves ED, Atlantic Health said, in addition to more adult emergency patient rooms.

Generally, the efforts are also aided by donations to the Overlook Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the hospital.

In August, Atlantic Health System Public Relations Manager Robert Seman and Overlook Foundation Director of Strategic Gifts and Board Relations penned a piece for NJBIZ, exploring the ways the COVID-19 pandemic altered how the system was able to approach the changing scene at Overlook–which was set for construction of new wings, operating rooms, a maternity center and to double the number of private rooms at the facility.

“There are times when crises offer you the chance to stop, reevaluate, and find ways to take the advantage,” Alan Lieber, who had been Overlook’s president for 18 years but retired over the summer,  said at the time. “At Overlook, our culture of continuous quality improvement not only helped us navigate the worst moments of the pandemic, but after the initial surge, also gave us the framework to put what we learned to work for us. It prompted us to take a look at what we had planned with a new perspective and use that to make it even better. The result will be a hospital fully optimized for the future.”

Overlook’s employee parking garage and Bouras Emergency Department entrance have also been completed, as was expanded wings on the hospital’s seventh and eighth floors. Those opened in 2020, and the new seventh floor wing was temporarily used as a COVID treatment unit during the state-designated health emergency.

COVID also prompted hospital officials to re-engineer ventilation systems. According to Atlantic Health, the Hersh Center and Bouras ED are able to utilize outdoor air for full circulation.