This institution started in 1904 as a 50-bed convalescent home for women and children. It is now a 502-bed academic medical center affiliated with Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Jersey Shore is part of Meridian Health, a five-hospital system that completed a merger with Bayshore Community Hospital and Health Services in Holmdel, N.J., in Sept. 2010. A $300 million expansion project at the medical center, completed in 2009, added 136 beds, a new ED and trauma center, surgical suites and an expanded outpatient pavilion. The medical center has been a winner of the John M. Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety from the National Quality Forum.