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Sovereign Health System is a multi-specialty community healthcare system...close to home.

That description contains a lot of terms – and a lot of meaning. Here’s what it means for our patients:

Too often, people are expected to be not only patients but also experts at navigating the healthcare system. When referred from a primary care physician to a specialist, the patient can be expected to explain to the specialist all of the primary care physicians’ findings, concerns, and requests.

The patient can be made responsible for picking up films of imaging studies and bringing them to one or more physicians, and for telling the insurance company the reasons a test has been ordered. This was difficult even in simpler times. In today’s increasingly complex healthcare environment, it is utterly impractical and unreasonable. At Sovereign Health System, we have multiple special services so that patients can focus all of their energies on their health.

We are able to accomplish this by way of shared electronic health record software systems, so that physicians and others throughout our system have easy access to important information about your medical history. It means speeding your path from one of our primary care physicians to a specialist with expertise in your condition. And it means helping you deal with insurers, managed care plans, and their paperwork and requirements. As a patient, your job is to do everything you can to enjoy the best possible health. At Sovereign, our job is to do everything we can to ensure that this is not just your primary job but your only job.

Multi-specialty

Seeing “the big picture” is important in all endeavors, but nowhere more so than in medicine. An individual patient can have wide-ranging health needs, from a chronic condition such as diabetes that requires life-long management to acute issues such as a viral infection or a broken bone. When healthcare is fragmented, the patient has to move from one practice to another, and there can be gaps in communication and care.

At Sovereign, we’ve assembled a team of outstanding primary care physicians, specialists in a wide range of medical areas, and key ancillary services so that you can receive all of the care you need – efficiently and conveniently – within our system.

Community healthcare system

Sovereign Health System was built from the ground up, and it remains deeply rooted in the New York tri-state area and the local communities where our clinicians practice and live. Our corporate headquarters are in Glen Rock, NJ, not hundreds of miles away, and our physicians, nurses, executives, and administrative team members are your neighbors.

But when we talk about being a “community healthcare system,” we’re referring to more than our local roots. Historically, healthcare systems were hospital-based, with individual practices affiliated primarily with one hospital or another, and most procedures and major tests performed in the hospital.

Advances in medical knowledge, practice, and technology have made that model outmoded, with 80% or more of procedures, tests, and other services now able to be provided effectively, safely, cost-efficiently, and more conveniently in outpatient community-based settings. Almost 25 years ago, Sovereign Health System founder John Hajjar, MD, FACS, MBA, was among the first physicians in the country to recognize the full implications of this shifting paradigm, and Sovereign’s growth has resulted from his foresight and skill in responding – and contributing – to the innovations driving this change.

For patients, this means that you are now able to receive everything from hip replacements to radiation therapy for tumors in fully licensed, immaculate, welcoming, well-staffed and conveniently located same-day settings known for their outcomes and high patient-satisfaction ratings.

....Close to Home.

With dozens of locations throughout the tri-state area, you don’t have to travel long distances or across bridges or through tunnels to receive excellent care. While your health always should be your top priority, we realize that it isn’t the only thing going on in your life, so we have located our care centers close to where you live and work. See Our Locations to find a Sovereign Health System close to you.

At Sovereign, you never have to leave your comfort zone to get the care you need.

The Sovereign Story

The Sovereign Story begins in 1992, with a young physician whose surgical skills and compassionate manner had enabled him to quickly build a thriving, multi-physician urology practice in northern New Jersey.

That physician, John Hajjar, MD, FACS, MBA, had helped develop and evaluate instruments, technologies and procedures that were transforming urological surgery, enabling many procedures to now be performed in a minimally invasive manner that achieved the same outcomes as traditional “open” surgery while offering the patient a faster recovery.

Dr. Hajjar appreciated more than most how minimally invasive procedures – which then were being introduced in a variety of surgical areas – could transform healthcare in a way that offered patients greater convenience while reducing costs.

Acting on his vision of improved care at reduced burden to the patient and healthcare system, Dr. Hajjar founded the first ambulatory surgery center in Bergen County, NJ. That center, which recorded excellent outcomes while consistently winning very high patient-satisfaction scores, served as the prototype for Sovereign Health SurgiCare’s 12 same-day surgery centers with 2 in development.

Dr. Hajjar since has extended his approach to high-quality outpatient care provided in convenient settings to the services provided by Sovereign Health Urgent Care and Sovereign Health Cancer Care, and to the wide range of primary and specialty medical care provided by the physicians of the Sovereign Health Medical Group.

Today, Sovereign Health System and its various divisions continue to build on and extend that legacy of innovation and excellence by offering patients clinically excellent, compassionate, and convenient care . . . close to home. To join us in this pioneering work of transforming healthcare to the benefit of patients, please review our current career opportunities.