Built from the ground up, the new University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro will encompass approximately 630,000 square feet of interior space on 50 acres of land and will incorporate the latest medical technology and best thinking in hospital design.

The state-of-the-art healing center will retain and attract skilled doctors, surgeons, nurses, and staff, and will offer the room, the technology and the people to provide exceptional care.

The University Medical Center will be located within a 171-acre healthcare campus off of Route 1 in Plainsboro, extending from Scudders Mill Road to Plainsboro Road and from Plainsboro Road to the Millstone River, just 2.5 miles from downtown Princeton. The entire campus will become a destination for a continuum of healthcare services and will include a modern medical office building attached to the hospital, a world-class education center, health and wellness center, a skilled nursing facility, pediatric services facility and a 32-acre public park.

Medical Center for the 21st Century

Patient rooms throughout the University Medical Center will be single patient rooms and designed to provide a comforting experience that reduces stress and anxiety and helps speed recovery.

A contemporary Emergency Department will include specialty areas to better serve pediatric, behavorial health, elderly patient needs, as well as less acute care services. A section in the ED for seniors will include six geriatric beds/stations and an exam room for geriatric patients. A rapid medical evaluation unit and "results-waiting" space will enhance patient experience and reduce wait time. The new Emergency Department also will be equipped with a comprehensive digital imaging and diagnostics facility and a modern interventional procedures suite with operating rooms, and cardiac catheterization and vascular laboratories. Interventional radiology is used to treat a wide range of diseases and conditions, including blocked arteries, aortic aneurysms, uterine fibroid tumors, liver and other cancers using chemoembolization, spinal fractures (using vertebroplasty) and peripheral vascular disease.

The new facility will offer specific Centers of Care focused on providing unparalleled treatment in a sophisticated setting designed by leading consultants in their field. These Centers of Care will focus on areas including: Cancer, Cardiac & Pulmonary Care, Neuroscience, Maternal-Child Health, and Surgery. Other Centers of Care include the Emergency Department, the Eating Disorders Program, and Testing and Treatment.  The Centers will be conveniently located off the main concourse of the University Medical Center or in other appropriate areas within the hospital.   

Decentralized nursing stations will enable nurses to remain just steps away from their patients and new operating rooms will accommodate today's most sophisticated technologies, including robotics, the next generation of surgery.  

Digital technology will transform the entire hospital experience, from admissions to discharge, and will enable medical staff to easily share computerized patient records including X-rays, CT scans and EEGs. Radiation oncology treatment will be transformed as well with a TrueBeam Linear Accelerator that delivers radiation four to six times faster than previous machines.

Additionally, the Joan and William Schreyer Education Center will be a vital hub of learning for medical professionals and students, patients and families, and community residents. It will have a library with print and electronic access to materials, study carrels, high-tech classrooms flexibly designed for alternate use as an auditorium, and video-conferencing rooms.

World Class, "Green" Design

Research confirms that everything about a hospital -- its architecture, internal layout, materials, landscaping, and even colors -- can reduce stress, empower families and caregivers and accelerate the healing process.

The new hospital will employ principles of evidence-based design and will adopt best practices from top hospitals across the country. It will follow U.S. Green Building Council guidelines for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard---conserving energy, minimizing impact on the surroundings and proving the best environment for patients, visitors, physicians, nurses and other staff. We believe it will be the most sustainable in N.J. and among the most in the country. Approximately $60 million is being spent on sustainable design that not only creates a healthier environment, but also enables the hospital to achieve energy operating cost savings of 25 percent of what the hospital would have spent if it were constructed with conventional energy infrastructure.

• Energy-efficient curtain wall system
• Solar shades
• Variable Frequency Drives on fans and pumps
  
• Sustainable construction materials and finishes
• East/west building orientation and extensive use of glass to maximize natural light
  
• Environmental control systems for lighting and temperature
• Co-generation, or generating two types of energy (thermal and electricity) from a single source of fuel
• Photovoltaic panels in northeast parking lot, producing 225KW
• Energy recovery system
• Chilled water thermal energy storage system
• 100 percent fresh air in patient areas
• Water-saving fixtures
• Indigenous landscape materials
• 32-acre public park along the Millstone River
• Bikeways, walkways, shuttles, bus rapid transit
• High-efficiency motors, transformers, lighting and air handling systems
• Regional purchasing of construction materials
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A team of internationally renowned architects and consultants is being led by the firms Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum and RMJM Hillier. Together, they have designed more than 260 hospitals, including some of the nation's leading teaching hospitals.

The University Medical Center was also accepted as a member of the prestigious Pebble Project, a research initiative founded by the Center for Health Design, in which healthcare staff members who are designing and building new facilities meet regularly to share experiential information.  

Design for Healing 

The $447 million construction of the new hospital is in large part supported by Design for Healing - The Campaign for the New University Medical Center of Princeton.  For more information about naming opportunities or other ways to support the capital campaign, visit www.princetonhcs.org/designforhealing or call 609.497.4190. To make a gift online now, click here.