40th Anniversary Of A Dream Realized: Brick Township’s Hospital

Community Corner 40th Anniversary Of A Dream Realized: Brick Township’s Hospital It started with a community conversation in the 1960s. Today, Ocean University Medical Center has grown beyond the founders’ dreams.
Hackensack Meridian Ocean University Medical Center is celebrating 40 years of operating in Brick Township on Saturday. (Karen Wall/Patch) A photo shows Brick Hospital in the early 1980s while it was still under construction, with dirt areas yet to be paved for the parking lots. (Ocean University Medical Center) The helipad at Ocean University Medical Center unveiled in June allows quick transport by medical helicopter to the hospital from other parts of Brick and surrounding towns, or between Brick and the trauma center at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. (Karen Wall/Patch)
BRICK, NJ — In July 1984, a dream that had been nearly 20 years in the making was realized with the opening of Brick Hospital.
The Brick Hospital Association, which had spent more than a dozen years raising money to build the hospital, celebrated that achievement with a large grand opening topped off by fireworks. On Saturday, the hospital is celebrating 40 years of being in operation with a family event from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the hospital, 425 Jack Martin Blvd. There won’t be fireworks, but the celebration will be reminiscent of the annual summer Brick Hospital Fairs that helped raise funds for its foundation, with food trucks, inflatables, games face painting, balloon animals, and a classic and exotic car show.
In addition, there will be a tour of the medevac helicopter on the new helipad that was unveiled in June, a surgical robot demonstration and health screenings, and there will be information about hospital programs and volunteer opportunities. The hospital also is hosting a food drive for Fulfill, and the community is urged to bring nonperishable food to donate.
The hospital has come a long way since the 1984 opening, which Alan Cohen, one of the founders of the hospital, called