A hospital executive’s turn from employee to patient pushed Hackensack Meridian Southern Ocean Medical Center at the Jersey Shore to meet the state threshold to offer elective angioplasty.

SOMC announced the New Jersey Department of Health approved its application at the end of February. The move clears the Armellino Family Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory to offer the service.

James Young, executive fundraising director for SOMC, suffered a heart attack in late 2024. Coincidentally, his successful emergency angioplasty helped the hospital reach the state’s case threshold for a facility Young helped fund.

Angioplasty is a minimally invasive procedure to open blocked arteries. Previously, SOMC only offered emergency angioplasty. Elective angioplasty, meanwhile, allows cardiologists to schedule procedures for stable patients with coronary artery disease, providing diagnosis and treatment in a single visit.

According to Dr. Jason Nehmad, treating emergent situations is crucial. “[B]ut offering elective angioplasty gives patients more control over their heart health,” added the SOMC vice president and chief medical officer. “This enhanced care is paramount.”

Reflecting on his own experience, Young, 55, agreed, “Preventative medicine is much better than emergency medicine.”

Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation in 2021 expanding access to angioplasty procedures.

For elective angioplasty services, a hospital must be licensed to provide primary angioplasty services or licensed to participate in the C-PORT-E clinical trial or the State Elective Angioplasty Demonstration Project, under the law. Additionally and after, the facility must perform a minimum of 200 elective angioplasty procedures per year, with each interventional cardiologist performing at least 50 elective angioplasty procedures per year. The hospital must also ensure all prospective elective angioplasty patients undergo careful selection, screening and risk stratification.

Big(ger) picture

Hackensack Meridian Health President, Southern Region, Dr. Kenneth Sable noted the expanded services at SOMC benefit a growing region.

They also align with plans for an expanded footprint. Last summer, the hospital started a $31 million project to expand its surgical department – in part to meet population local growth.

The latest approval complements the network’s comprehensive cardiovascular services available throughout Monmouth and Ocean counties. This includes the counties’ only open-heart and minimally invasive cardiac surgery program, at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, where Young received outpatient cardiac rehabilitation close to his Neptune home, SOMC said.

At Southern Ocean, cardiovascular specialists utilize leading angiography imaging system, GE Innova IGS 540, to provide vascular, cardiac and interventional radiology services as well as accurately diagnose and treat heart, artery and valve diseases. Additionally, the team offers Exercise, nuclear and Persantine/Lexiscan Nuclear Stress Tests; stress echocardiology; and a 12-week cardiac rehabilitation program.

For Young, it’s been a full-circle experience from fundraising for cardiac services to becoming a patient. “In my role, we’re always looking for the grateful patient story. And now that patient is me,” he said.