By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
The new University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro is about two months away from opening its doors for patients and staff.
Construction is substantially done and a temporary certificate of occupancy was issued from Plainsboro on March 15, said Barry Rabner, president and CEO of Princeton Health Care System, when speaking to the Princeton Borough Council on Tuesday evening.
The new hospital, located off Route 1 north at Scudder’s Mill Road, will be open to treat patients on May 22, said Mr. Rabner.
”If you were to visit the hospital tomorrow, you’d see people cleaning and no one building anything,” said Mr. Rabner. “All the major equipment like MRIs and linear accelerators have been installed and they are being tested. Even the art has shown up and it’s being positioned to be installed.”
Next month, the rest of the equipment and furniture will be delivered and installed.
The staff began their orientation about three weeks ago.
”The actual relocation of the patients is pretty remarkable process,” said Mr. Rabner. “The key to it is on the average day we have 200 or so in-patients. On the day of the move, we will have reduced the number of patients to 100.”
Elective procedures will not be scheduled for that time period and other schedules will be modified, “so we will be in a position to staff both hospitals fully for one day,” said Mr. Rabner. “We will reduce the number of patients and no one gets to take a vacation.”
Both sets of emergency rooms, operating rooms and patient rooms will be up and running for the day.
Patients will begin to be moved about 7 a.m. via ambulance.
”They are followed by a medical team from the time they are getting ready to leave their room to getting to the ambulance, from the ambulance to the new hospital to the emergency department to getting to the new room. We just keep repeating that 100 times.”
One patient will be leaving the building every four to five minutes, said Mr. Rabner.
One technique to manage this is to stagger the transfers among the floors, he said.
A company that specializes in hospital moves is assisting the staff and advising the process.
The hospital had 22,000 visits in 2011 and cared for 6,000 people in that time. Hospital officials expect that volume to increase by about 10 percent in the first year.
”One thing we are happy about is having space for the care we are delivering,” said Mr. Rabner.
The medical office building, which will mostly be occupied by physicians on the hospital staff, is expected to be completed May 11 and is expected to be providing care on May 29 after inspections by the Department of Health.
A clinic, a fitness and wellness center, adult day care, childcare and 85 assisted living units are also planned or in the works for the site.
A 100,000-square-foot ambulatory facility in partnership with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is in the planning stages and in the permitting process with Plainsboro.

