Penn Medicine’s Pavilion for Advanced Care, Integrating Critical Care Specialties and Expanding Penn Presbyterian Medical Center Campus |
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| Penn Medicine’s new Pavilion for Advanced Care (PAC) at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Photograph Courtesy of Dan Burke Photography. |
Penn Medicine’s new $144 million facility, the Pavilion for Advanced Care (PAC) at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC), opened the doors in January to its first patients. Clinical teams from critical care specialties, surgical services, trauma/emergency services and radiology have come together in the new six-story, 178,000-square-foot facility (Almanac November 20, 2012). The space, which encompasses both new and renovated areas in existing buildings at PPMC, unites more than 20 medical and surgical specialists. The building combines new features aimed at improving patient and family comfort, with modern technologies to continue providing the best in critical care. In addition to the nearly 40 inpatient critical care beds in the new facility’s upper floors, Penn Medicine’s Level I Regional Resource Trauma Center will relocate from its current home at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) to a state-of-the-art facility at the PAC that also expands PPMC’s emergency department.
Features of the new PAC will include:
• Three state-of-the-art critical care units—including a designated heart and vascular critical care unit and PPMC’s first neurosurgical and neurocritical care inpatient units—increasing bed capacity by as many as 36 beds.
• A 16-bed increase in capacity in the new emergency department, in addition to a new five-bay Rapid Assessment Treatment area designed to quickly and more accurately triage emergency patients.
• 24/7 eye injury treatment in the emergency department.
• A new concourse that provides a consolidated Pre-Admissions Testing and Medical Imaging services, including the most advanced CT and MRI technology, digital X-rays, ultrasound and flouroscopy.
• A new surgical suite that provides a bridge to the second floor of PPMC and includes a new 30-bed “Short Procedure Unit” for outpatient surgeries such as hernia repairs, gallbladder removals or eye and ear procedures.
• A new inpatient therapy gym.
• An outdoor space which serves as both a healing garden and a common outdoor space for eating and gathering.
“Over the last decade, Penn Medicine has made numerous investments in people, facilities and patient care that have strengthened our commitment to our patients, staff and our multiple missions of clinical care, research and teaching,” said Ralph Muller, CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. “With this latest endeavor, Penn Medicine has the resources in place to effectively elevate our care processes and provide better value to both our patients and payers.”
Planning for the Pavilion for Advanced Care has involved work by hundreds of staff and leaders spanning 37 unique departments and divisions across Penn Medicine during the three-year planning process for the new facility.
“This has been a momentous year for Penn Presbyterian,” said Michele Volpe, executive director of PPMC. “Beginning with the opening of Penn Medicine University City in August 2013—which now houses many of Presbyterian’s outpatient services—and as we approach the final stages of the transition to the PAC, Presbyterian is now poised to deliver the most advanced medical care to some of our most vulnerable and critically ill patients.”
Transitioning the Level I Regional Resource Trauma Center
Penn Medicine’s Trauma Program treats more than 2,200 patients with life-threatening injuries per year. These injuries include those resulting from severe falls, motor vehicle and motorcycle collisions, injuries associated with violent crime, including gunshot wounds and stabbings. The new trauma center includes upgrades to the overall design and efficiency of caring for these critically injured patients, including:
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| Photograph Courtesy of Dan Burke Photography. |
• A new oversized helipad on the roof of the PAC, equipped with self-cleaning and snow-melting technology and to an elevator that takes the PennSTAR flight team from the helipad to the OR or trauma resuscitation unit in seconds.
• The John Paul Pryor, MD, FACS, Shock Trauma and Resuscitation (STAR) Unit: a state-of-the-art, five-bay trauma resuscitation area and the largest known design dedicated to trauma resuscitation, which facilitates immediate access to “Corridor of Life” critical care treatment areas, including ceiling-mounted CT and MRI imaging and X-rays.
• Designated operating rooms, elevators and pathways for trauma patients and providers, allowing the quickest care when every minute counts toward the chances of survival.
The emergency department at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) will continue to be a full-service ED, equipped and staffed to handle more than 60,000 visits each year. HUP will also remain Penn Medicine’s home for specialty emergency services such as the most advanced cardiac resuscitation techniques, hyperbaric medicine for carbon monoxide poisoning and medical toxicology expertise for poisoning and adverse effects of drugs.
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