AtlantiCare's flagship surgery center marks 25th anniversary

For Immediate Release: April 19, 2022

AtlantiCare is marking the 25^th anniversary of the opening of its flagship surgery center, which opened April 9, 1997, in its Health Park in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, this month. Staff celebrated the silver anniversary Monday, April 11, by presenting every patient with a silver-ribbon-wrapped carnation to thank them for choosing AtlantiCare.

The center’s team performed 657 outpatient procedures in its first year. As of April 9, 2022, the team had performed 276,714 procedures. AtlantiCare opened surgery centers in its Cape May Court House, New Jersey, Health Park in 2009 and in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, in 2014. It opened the Center for Orthopaedic Surgery in 2020 in the Egg Harbor Township Health Park. As of April 9, 2022, AtlantiCare’s surgery centers had performed 350,757 procedures combined.

“The exceptional teamwork of our providers and staff has led -o us to exceed national customer service and quality standards,” says Richard Zalman, M.D. An anesthesiologist and executive medical director, AtlantiCare Surgery Centers (ASCs), Zalman has been with the center since 1999. “Because of the vast experience of our clinical team, we safely offer more than 4,000 diagnostic and treatment procedures.”

“Many of us intuitively knew that healthcare would be moving to settings outside of the hospital,” says Francis Previti, M.D., president, ASCs. He was among the planning team that opened the center. He also performed the first surgery at the site. “We anticipated the outpatient diagnostic and treatment procedures our community would need and created the building and program around those needs. We’ve developed best practices, through our flagship center and additional sites, that we’ve shared with ambulatory surgery centers across the country.”

“Patients regularly comment about how efficiently we care for them and their families,” says gastroenterologist Michael Krachman, M.D. He, too, was on the planning/opening team and has been with the center since it opened. “The clinical and administrative staff are incredibly efficient. They are engaged in their work and they cross-train to support each other. As a result, they guide patients through procedures safely and in a comfortable environment.”

“Our staff is friendly, compassionate, and dedicated,” says David Smith, M.D., ophthalmologist and a member of the planning/opening team. Smith performed the first cataract surgery at the center in 1997 and has been part of the team for 25 years. “They courteously and respectfully treat each other and our patients and patients’ loved ones as they do members of their own families. They always have their eyes on personally caring for each patient’s unique needs.”

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AtlantiCare is an integrated healthcare system based in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, whose more than 6,000 staff, providers and volunteers serve the community in more than 100 locations in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May and Ocean counties of southern New Jersey. Its vision of building healthy communities together drives its mission of making a difference in health and healing, one person at a time, through caring and trusting relationships. A Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winner, AtlantiCare was also included in Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work. AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center was the 105th hospital in the nation to attain the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet™ designation in 2004 and earned redesignation in 2008, 2013, in 2018. Learn more at atlanticare.org or 1-888-569-1000.