It's official. Meridian Health merged with Raritan Bay Medical Center on January 1, 2016, announced the presidents of both health systems to Townsquare Media on Monday.

Meridian President/CEO John Lloyd with WOBM's Shawn & Sue (Shawn Michaels, Townsquare Media))
Meridian President/CEO John Lloyd with WOBM's Shawn & Sue (Shawn Michaels, Townsquare Media)
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"We're excited," said John Lloyd, President of Meridian Health.

Meridian already provides an extensive array of services with its six hospitals and non-hospital services available within about 15 minutes of every resident in Monmouth and Ocean, according to Lloyd.

"This gives us an opportunity working with Raritan Bay to expand the services available in Middlesex County," Lloyd said.

Raritan Bay Medical Center President Michael D'Agnes pointed out the facility is the closest one to Meridian's Bayshore Community Hospital in Holmdel, making it a natural extension for Meridian to expand its reach into Middlesex County.

"This gives us access to resources that we never would have had, to people, to finances, to programs that Raritan Bay just did not have. We did not have the resources to continue in the is very complex environment," said D'Agnes.

Raritan Bay will have immediate access to a new Information Technology system that Meridian has already purchased and will install at all of its hospitals, the first one being Raritan Bay Medical Center, according to D'Agnes.

"We never, never could have afforded that system at our hospital and that's going to be a great boon to the operation of the medical center," D'Agnes said.

"Both of our boards, our leadership and our team members are indeed very excited. We have a whole series of activities planned at Raritan Bay all week, starting with this morning, to welcome Raritan Bay team members and physicians to the Meridian Health Family," added Lloyd.

For more information aout this week's events, visit: meridianhealth.com or rbmc.org.

Meridian Health's hospitals include: Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital in Neptune, Riverview Medical in Red Bank, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin, Bayshore Community Hospital in Holmdel, and Raritan Bay Medical Center with locations in Old Bridge and Perth Amboy.

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