Newton Memorial to build $8M satellite hospital

Newton Memorial Hospital unveiled plans yesterday to build an $8 million health and wellness center in Hardyston, which officials say will make health care more accessible in northern Sussex County.

Construction of the new facility, to be located on Route 94 at the foot of the Crystal Springs Resort, is expected to start late next year. The 40,000-square-foot center will contain two floors and is expected to create 75 to 100 new full- and part-time jobs when it opens in late 2011.

"This facility will create a much-needed health care access point for our patients," Tom Senker, hospital president and chief executive officer, said at a press conference at Crystal Springs. "It also will give residents of northern Sussex convenient access to Newton Memorial's medical staff ... all under one roof in a state-of-the-art setting."

Sean O'Rourke, the hospital's senior vice president and chief operating officer, said about 27,000 of the county's approximate 151,000 residents live in northern Sussex County. The area is projected to grow by 23 percent by 2015, he said. The northern section of the county is currently served by Saint Clare's Hospital in Sussex Borough.

"The more convenient the location, the more people are apt follow their doctors' orders," O'Rourke said. "It helps create a healthier community."

The Vernon Urgent Care Center, a 5,000-square-foot facility, will be relocated to the new Hardyston site, hospital officials said.

Newton Memorial operates two other satellite health centers, one in Milford, Pa., which opened in 2001, and another in Sparta, which opened in 1997.

Yesterday's announcement comes on the heels of two other major expansion projects that Newton Memorial, which opened in 1932, has undergone in recent years.

In 2006, the hospital opened the county's first cardiac center at a cost of $7.2 million, and in 2005, it completed a $14.8 million expansion of its emergency room.

Joe Moszczynski can be reached at (973) 383-0516 or jmoszczynski@starledger.com.