Hackensack Meridian Health and Monmouth University announced a transformative strategic affiliation that will increase health care educational opportunities – and on-campus heath care access – for students at the West Long Branch school.
The affiliation includes collaboration on clinical academic placement and community wellness initiatives. It also establishes a preferred provider relationship with Hackensack Meridian Health for urgent care needs when the University’s Health Center is not open.
Additionally, Hackensack Meridian Health will sponsor a student wellness center as part of a planned expansion of the health and fitness facilities in the OceanFirst Bank Center on the Monmouth campus.
Hackensack Meridian Health CEO Bob Garrett and Monmouth University President Patrick Leahy were thrilled to make the announcement.
“We are committed to advancing clinical education here in New Jersey by training future leaders in healthcare to provide high-quality, compassionate care to the patients we serve,” Garrett said. “We look forward to seeing the impact this partnership will have on generations to come.”
Leahy agreed.
“I am delighted that our strategic affiliation with Hackensack Meridian Health will bring such important and direct benefits to our students,” he said. “This new agreement will offer expanded academic and career placement options, enhance opportunities for health and wellness on campus, and most importantly, expand and augment after-hours options for urgent care within a seamless healthcare provider ecosystem.”
The agreement is anchored by an academic affiliation designed to provide both clinical and non-clinical experiential opportunities for Monmouth University students in a variety of health and allied health programs.
HMH will place a full-time clinical academic placement coordinator onsite within the Marjorie K. Unterberg School of Nursing and Health Studies at Monmouth to help foster the successful placement of students and new graduates in internship and employment opportunities with Hackensack Meridian Health.
The affiliation also provides for collaboration on health and wellness education and outreach for students and offers after-hours urgent care options for the university community.
Officials from Hackensack Meridian Health and Monmouth will partner on community education, including annual student-centric wellness programming. HMH also will provide direct health services as part of the agreement, which establishes Hackensack Meridian Urgent Care Centers in Eatontown and Neptune as preferred urgent care options for students, faculty and staff when the University’s Health Center is not open.
In support of its commitment to Monmouth students, Hackensack Meridian Health will offer a limited number of discounted rideshare vouchers to ensure that transportation to those facilities is not a barrier to care.
HMH also secured exclusive naming rights for the addition of a student wellness center that is part of a planned expansion of OceanFirst Bank Center, scheduled to open in 2026. The expansion adds 22,745 square feet of health and fitness space to the university’s existing fitness center and includes state-of-the-art upgrades to the university’s sports medicine facilities.
