Little Red Hats Return to Raritan Bay Medical Center-Perth Amboy   

Little Red Hats Return to Raritan Bay Medical Center-Perth Amboy

February 14, 2019

Raritan Bay-Perth Amboy participates in the American Heart Association’s Little Hats, Big Hearts program to empower new moms to live heart-healthy while raising awareness of congenital heart defects.

Perth Amboy, New Jersey - Hackensack Meridian Health Raritan Bay Medical Center-Perth Amboy is participating in the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Little Hats, Big Hearts program for the second time this year. The AHA is raising awareness about family heart health and congenital heart defects, the most common type of birth defect in the country, with support from The Children’s Heart Foundation. This effort aims to empower new moms to take charge of their own wellbeing while creating a healthy lifestyle for the entire family.

As part of the Little Hats, Big Hearts program, babies born at Raritan Bay-Perth Amboy in February are receiving a handmade, knitted or crocheted red hat, as well as a kit full of heart-healthy information for mom and baby. Each mom is receiving tips on raising a healthy family, ways mom can take care of herself, heart-healthy recipes, and information on children’s heart health.

In New Jersey alone, 6,700 kits are being distributed across the state, including at other Hackensack Meridian Health hospitals. Raritan Bay-Perth Amboy is distributing nearly 100 kits through Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week, February 7 to 14, through the end of February, American Heart Month.

Congenital heart defects are structural problems with the heart present at birth. They result when a mishap occurs during heart development soon after conception and often before the mother is aware that she is pregnant. Defects range in severity from simple problems, such as "holes" between chambers of the heart, to very severe malformations, such as complete absence of one or more chambers or valves. According to the AHA, it’s possible to fix most congenital heart defects and there are an estimated 2 million CHD survivors in the U.S.

ABOUT HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH

Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care.

Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 17 hospitals from Bergen to Ocean counties, which includes three academic medical centers – Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, JFK Medical Center in Edison; two children’s hospitals - Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital in Hackensack, K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital in Neptune; nine community hospitals – Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, and Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin; a behavioral health hospital – Carrier Clinic in Belle Mead; and two rehabilitation hospitals - JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison and Shore Rehabilitation Institute in Brick.

Additionally, the network has more than 500 patient care locations throughout the state which include ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, fitness and wellness centers, rehabilitation centers, urgent care centers and physician practice locations. Hackensack Meridian Health has more than 34,100 team members, and 6,500 physicians and is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy, committed to the health and well-being of the communities it serves.

The network’s notable distinctions include having four hospitals among the top 10 in New Jersey by U.S. News and World Report. Other honors include consistently achieving Magnet® recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center and being named to Becker’s Healthcare’s “150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare/2018” list.

The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University, the first private medical school in New Jersey in more than 50 years, welcomed its first class of students in 2018 to its On3 campus in Nutley and Clifton. Additionally, the network partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to find more cures for cancer faster while ensuring that patients have access to the highest quality, most individualized cancer care when and where they need it.

Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies.

For additional information, please visit www.HackensackMeridianHealth.org.

The Little Hats, Big Hearts program started in Chicago in 2014 and has expanded to more than 40 states. Since 2016, nearly 5,800 hats have been distributed in the Garden State. For more information about the Little Hats, Big Heart program in NJ, please visit www.heart.org/littlehatsbighearts.

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