Paterson: Health Care

Over the past 97 years, Barnert Hospital has grown to include 256 licensed beds serving the Bergen and Passaic county communities. Specialties run the gamut from adolescent sexual behavior issues to oncology and geriatrics. The Barnert Occupational Health Center provides diagnosis and treatment of work-related issues related to asbestos and hazardous waste, hearing loss, employment physicals, and injury prevention. Centers for pain management, sleep disorders, and breast health supplement the trauma facilities of the hospital. Outreach services include the Family and Child Education project operated in conjunction with the Paterson Public School District, with an eye toward prevention of health problems particularly among economically disadvantaged populations.

St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center, founded in 1867, is sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station, New Jersey, and serves the entire northern New Jersey area. The hospital is licensed for 792 beds; more than 30,000 inpatients are admitted yearly and another 350,000 outpatients are cared for. The Regional Medical Center specializes in craniofacial reconstruction and surgery, oncology, trauma care and radiology. The medical complex includes a Children's Hospital featuring a feeding and swallowing center, a child development center, and medical personnel specializing in everything from asthma to urology. A nursing home for patients requiring living assistance on a regular basis is located in Cedar Grove, New Jersey; dental and ophthalmology services are offered in addition to hospice care and physical therapy.

A number of public and private walk-in clinics operate in the northern New Jersey area as well, along with an assortment of alternative healthcare practitioners such as massage therapists, acupuncturists, aromatherapists, and hypnotherapists.