Edison, N.J.-based Hackensack Meridian Health plans to unveil Helena Theurer Pavilion — a $714 million, 530,000-square-foot project — on Hackensack (N.J.) University Medical Center's campus in December. Health system officials called it the most technologically advanced hospital in the U.S., ROI-NJ reported Nov. 3.
Here are the features that make the hospital stand out, according to ROI-NJ:
- Each room is equipped with 65-inch TVs that also serve as staff messaging boards and telecommunication portals, tablets to control room conditions and contact nurses, couches that pull out into beds and ceiling tracks to help immobile patients to the bathroom.
- In-room supply closets have double doors, allowing them to be restocked without staff entering, as an infection control measure.
- Waiting areas have business centers equipped with computers and wifi.
- After surgical instruments are used, they are sent to a sterilization unit below the operating rooms; they never leave a red-lined zone. Health system officials said they hope this will cut down on infection-related fatalities.
- Operating rooms are 800 square feet, double the standard size, with live-streaming cameras built into many components for teaching purposes.
- Between two operating rooms is an intraoperative MRI system, so neurosurgery can be performed simultaneously on two patients who may need the machine.
- The hospital is decked out for robotic surgery, with six advanced da Vinci robotic surgical systems and four orthopedic robots for joint replacement procedures.
- Each room, wing and floor in the hospital has negative pressure capability; most hospitals have only a few rooms with this feature, ROI-NJ reports.
- There are separate elevators for patients, service workers and sterilizers to improve security and control infection.