St. Barnabas Hospital Unveils, Dedicates New Emergency Services Pavilion

Saint Barnabas Hospital unveiled the new entrance to its emergency services department Monday and dedicated it to the man who was instrumental in building it into the largest health care system in New Jersey. 

More than 200 people sat and stood outside the hospital’s newly constructed entrance yesterday to see the opening of the Ronald J. Del Mauro Emergency Services Pavilion. The $1 million renovation was named after the former president and chief financial officer who many credit with saving the hospital from bankruptcy in the late 1980s. 

“No single individual has contributed to the success of St. Barnabas more than our honoree tonight, Ronald Del Mauro,” said Barry Ostrowsky, president and chief executive officer of Barnabas Health.  

As the hospital prepares to receive an estimated 90,000 people through that entrance in 2013, Dr. John Bonamo, president and chief executive officer of Saint Barnabas Medical Center, said he believes the hospital “has become what it is today because of [Del Mauro's] vision and his dogged dedication to making the emergency department be the front door" to the community. 

Del Mauro began his long career at the hospital in 1967 when he served as the vice president for human resources and director of personnel. He was eventually named president and chief financial officer in 1985 as the hospital was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. 

It was also under his stewardship in 1996 that the hospital created the health care delivery system Barnabas Health. Del Mauro stepped down from his multiple posts at the hospital in 2011. 

Speaking to family, friends and colleagues at the unveiling yesterday, Del Mauro said it was “truly humbling” for his name to be associated with the hospital where he not only served for more than 40 years, but where his wife and family came for treatment during that time. 

“The emergency department is truly the heart and soul of Saint Barnabas Medical Center,” said Del Mauro.  

The newly constructed entrance to the emergency department took about seven months to complete. The pavilion, which is adjacent to the ambulance drop-off, includes an extended overhang with the words “Saint Barnabas Medical Center Emergency” running across it that will be illuminated during the night. 

Inside the automatic sliding doors, patients are greeted by a waiting room with cushioned chairs and sofas, and floor-to-ceiling windows looking out toward Old Short Hills Road. Further inside, the front desk welcomes people to the reception area and a partitioned pediatric waiting area. 

The emergency entranceway is much larger and better lit than the previous entrance, which was notoriously difficult to find — a problem that Bonamo said patients will no longer have. 

“There is no question that when you pass by on Old Short Hills Road, you will know this is the emergency room entrance,” said Bonamo.