Hackensack Meridian’s new facility built with cutting-edge tech, design

Hackensack Meridian Health is putting the finishing touches on a massive $714 million expansion at Hackensack University Medical Center, an undertaking that is considered one of the largest and most comprehensive health care construction projects in the U.S. And during a Nov. 1 media event, hospital officials conducted a behind-the-scenes tour of the Helena Theurer Pavilion, a brand new, nine-story, 530,000-square-foot surgical and intensive care tower in Hackensack.

Equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and amenities, Hackensack Meridian executives are confident the pavilion will raise the bar on patient-centered health care in the region and beyond once it begins accepting patients in late December.

One unique aspect of the new facility is that it accounts for the challenges faced by the health care industry as providers battled against multiple waves of COVID outbreaks over the past two-and-a-half years, officials said.

After breaking ground in September 2019, construction of the Helena Theurer Pavilion proceeded smoothly, safely and on schedule. However, those lessons learned by the hospital during the early days of the pandemic prompted Hackensack Meridian to update the design, in real time, to incorporate “pandemic readiness.”

Mark Sparta, HUMC’s chief health executive and president of the Northern Region of Hackensack Meridian Health, described the changes as “small tweaks, but important ones.”

The most noteworthy modification added the option to convert the entire tower to a negative-pressure facility for infection control, with just the flip of a switch.

The pandemic’s impact can also be seen in smaller features, such as a set of sinks for handwashing that visitors in the intensive care unit can use before visiting loved ones, and the ability for staff to manage IVs and stock supplies from outside patient rooms.

“This building rose like a phoenix out of those darkest days of the pandemic. We remained on budget and on time. It’s really a credit to the teams that worked on this,” said Sparta.

“This is the future of health care,” he stated. “This facility will really position Hackensack University Medical Center to care for the next three or four generations of New Jersey residents with the most complex care.”

Seeing the growing need for critical care services, Hackensack Meridian began planning the expansion a decade ago with the goal of building one of the nation’s leading acute care facilities, according to Robert Garrett, chief executive officer of Hackensack Meridian Health.

“We knew 10 years ago the population is aging significantly, especially with all the Baby Boomers in New Jersey, particularly in northern New Jersey,” Garrett said. And, within the next 30 years, the population of seniors 65 years and up is expected to double, placing an even bigger demand on the need for care, he added.

Robotic technology

Situated on the Bergen County campus of one of the hospital system’s two flagship academic medical centers, the Helena Theurer Pavilion was designed to promote innovation, efficiency and safety, officials said.

“We knew we wanted to provide our world-class team members with a world-class facility so they can deliver world-class care for members of our community,” Sparta said.

“Hackensack University Medical Center has been providing care to the community for over 135 years. And nothing makes me more proud than to be able to say that 135 years after those community-minded individuals got together to build the first hospital in Bergen County, that on that very site on Second Street we have now constructed the future of health care,” he continued.

It includes 24 operating rooms, 72 post-anesthesia care unit beds, 50 intensive care unit beds and 175 medical/surgical beds in private rooms.

The pavilion also has five da Vinci multiport robots, four orthopedic robots for joint replacement procedures, one da Vinci single-port robot and one CT scanner in the ICU.  Additionally, HUMC will now be the first hospital in the state to have an interoperative MRI system

Other features of the pavilion, which Hackensack Meridian is touting as the state’s first “smart surgical tower,” include:

• A monitor tablet outside each room that provides select patient information, such as fall risk or contact precautions
• In-room workstations for team members and in-room patient lift systems to assist with transport
• Dedicated CT imaging on the ICU floor
• Live-streaming capability in all operating rooms, promoting education and communication between colleagues
• Large monitors in each OR to make it easier for surgeons to see patient images
• A pathology lab located near ORs for improved collaboration and time-sensitive care

The tower’s integrated system will enable real-time data sharing and connectivity between the hospital and other players – like surgeons and their patients – on screen monitors in each patient’s room that can display visuals and 3D virtual models to help explain diagnosis and care plans.

The pavilion also offers several patient- and family-friendly amenities.

Each single-patient room has been designed “to provide a superior healing environment,” from their full bathrooms to the paint color, the floor and the natural light to the views of the New York City skyline.

Rooms also have the latest technology, including an in-room tablet at the bedside that allows patients to control the lights, shades, TV, room temperature, order food and video chat with their loved ones who they can see on the 69-inch flat screen.

Dr. D. Howard Ross, chair of surgery and surgeon-in-chief at HUMC, said, “This tower is not only region leading and state leading, but it’s also nation leading. It’s full of technology, but also design. It brings in air and light so patients will recover more soundly. It will be a place where staff wants to come to work – it’s that physically beautiful.”

As for the existing operation rooms and ICU units in the hospital’s current 771-bed facility on Prospect Avenue, Sparta said those rooms will be repurposed for other uses, such as same-day procedures, like colonoscopies and endoscopies.

With 4,200 admissions annually, HUMC is considered the largest provider of inpatient and outpatient services in New Jersey. And now, with the addition of the Helena Theurer Pavilion, officials believe it could draw even more patients to seek care at the hospital.

Garrett said he believes the tower is the “newest, most technologically advanced” facility not only in New Jersey, but in the nation.

“It’s truly a smart hospital in every sense of the word,” said Garrett, who added, “My expectation would be that patients from New Jersey who are going into New York now may consider coming here for their surgery … I would think it’s a very attractive facility for the area.”

The pavilion is named in honor of Helena Theurer, a longtime benefactor who donated $35 million between 2010 and 2020 to HUMC’s John Theurer Cancer Center, which was named in tribute to her late husband.

Statewide, the not-for-profit Hackensack Meridian Health has 18 hospitals and more than 500 patient care locations, which include ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, air medical transportation, rehabilitation centers, urgent care centers, physician practice locations and a fitness and wellness centers.

Its workforce includes more than 35,000 team members and 7,000 physicians, making it one of New Jersey’s top employers.