As a Catholic hospital with a 115-year history and one of New Jersey’s few remaining independently operated hospitals, Saint Peter’s Healthcare System has always had, as part of our mission, a commitment to providing exemplary health care regardless of one’s socioeconomic status especially to the underserved and most vulnerable. Based in New Brunswick where 34% of the residents live below the federal poverty level, we see a daily need that requires us to responsibly care for those who cannot afford basic health care services.

A key focus of our efforts beyond the 478-bed acute-care teaching hospital at our main campus on Easton Avenue is Saint Peter’s University Hospital’s Family Health Center, an ambulatory services center that provides about 60,000 visits annually to a population that is largely underinsured and uninsured. Located at 123 How Lane in New Brunswick, Saint Peter’s Family Health Center has had a long-standing commitment of supporting low-income and diverse populations of children and adults. The majority of individuals who seek care at Saint Peter’s Family Health Center speak Spanish. To best serve our patients who speak a language other than English, we also have a system available that can interpret over 100 different languages.

Focusing on social determinants of health, Saint Peter’s recently launched an educational program to clearly communicate to patients the benefit programs for which they may be eligible, i.e., assistance with food, child care, bills, tax credits and more. In addition, Saint Peter’s identified transportation issues that may affect the community’s ability to access health care.

The services provided at Saint Peter’s Family Health Center are extensive.

Approximately 6,000 adult patients visit the Adult Family Health Center annually for primary and subspecialty care that includes gastroenterology, neurology, endocrinology, podiatry, nephrology and ophthalmology. Patients can also be referred to Saint Peter’s University Hospital for pulmonary, oncology, cardiology, surgery, wound care and more.

The Pediatric Faculty Group provides primary and specialty pediatric care from newborn to adulthood, with over 21,000 visits annually. Administering more than 26,000 immunizations, with the addition of COVID-19 vaccines, Saint Peter’s Family Health Center has been a leader in the Vaccines for Children program, a federally funded effort that provides free inoculations to children who otherwise might not be vaccinated due to their family’s inability to pay.

Saint Peter’s Women’s Ambulatory Care Services offers obstetrical care to women, from prenatal, intrapartum to postpartum care, as well as routine gynecological care. Services include nutritional counseling, social work referrals, financial counseling, ultrasound surveillance and co-management with referral to Saint Peter’s Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division when needed due to high-risk factors. The maternal health patients served by Saint Peter’s Family Health Center account for approximately 1,500 deliveries and 19,000 obstetrical/gynecological outpatient visits per year. Saint Peter’s provides female reproductive health care to all ages of women including adolescents, women of childbearing age and women seeking post-menopausal care. Referrals are also provided to Saint Peter’s physicians who specialize in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery to evaluate and treat such conditions as cervical and uterine cancer, uterine fibroids and polyps, and endometriosis.

Saint Peter’s University Hospital’s For KEEPS program (Kids Embraced and Empowered through Psychological Services) is a short-term acute partial-hospitalization state-of-the-art unit offering high-quality mental health diagnoses and intensive treatment to children, ages 5 to 17, who suffer from emotional and behavioral difficulties. Licensed by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, offerings provided by this program include individual, group and family therapy; academic instruction in collaboration with the child’s school district; and medication management. Established in 2002, the For KEEPS program has been lauded as a model for children’s partial hospital programs statewide.

At the Dorothy B. Hersh Regional Child Protection Center, a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals, including certified child abuse pediatricians, nurses, psychologists and social workers, offers help to children and their families in the evaluation and treatment of physical and emotional injuries caused by child abuse and neglect. As one of four state-designated child protection centers, the Child Protection Center serves seven counties in central New Jersey. The staff provides crisis intervention, child abuse assessments and referrals to community resources.

Besides the wide variety of services provided at the Family Health Center, Saint Peter’s Community Health Services Department has a longstanding history of providing for the health care needs of the community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Community Health Services was at the forefront of efforts to reduce the spread of the virus. As part of that, nearly 40,000 vaccines have been administered to adults and children, including to those attending Catholic schools in the Diocese of Metuchen, at the hospital’s vaccine clinics, and onsite at Carteret and New Brunswick public schools. Saint Peter’s continues to provide COVID-19 vaccine clinics both at Saint Peter’s Family Health Center and the main hospital.

In partnership with Middlesex County’s Office of Health Services and the Healthier Middlesex Consortium, Saint Peter’s distributed Coronavirus Care Kits to New Brunswick’s hardest hit neighborhoods, Esperanza and Unity Square. These neighborhoods primarily consist of multifamily dwellings where many individuals live together, thereby increasing risk of adverse health conditions and community spread. Our community outreach efforts seek to eliminate disparities that have a direct impact on personal health and access to health care resources. The materials we distributed included bilingual health care information, masks, hand sanitizer and soap to support residents’ prevention efforts. Distribution sites included local parks, churches and food distribution centers.

I am also very excited to announce that Saint Peter’s is currently in the process of expanding the Family Health Center’s capabilities and capacity. Over the next several years, our goal is to increase the number of visits to the Family Health Center to 100,000 per year so that more individuals and families from a wider geographic area can avail themselves of our diverse services. This initiative will involve a multimillion-dollar expansion and modernization project taking place between 2022 and 2023, which will result in an additional 20 exam rooms and ample clinical space to allow for physical therapy and other services. By expanding Saint Peter’s Family Health Center, we can continue to serve generations of families from our community and beyond, providing excellent care to a diverse population irrespective of socioeconomic background or ability to pay—all in support of our rich 115-year Catholic mission of providing care to those in need, often the most vulnerable among us.

Leslie Hirsch is president and CEO of Saint Peter’s Healthcare System.