CHOP's building boom begins with $19.8M New Jersey facility

The $19.8 million CHOP Specialty Care Center replaces a smaller facility three miles away.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has opened its $19.8 million CHOP Specialty Care Center in Plainsboro, N.J., the first of six health care facilities the pediatric medical center plans to open this year.

"Our goal is to provide services close to home, when appropriate, so patients only have to come to the main hospital when they need to — when they are really sick," said Amy Lambert, senior vice president of the CHOP Care Network.

The 25,000-square-foot specialty care center is on the campus of the University Medical Center of Princeton in Plainsboro. It was built as a replacement facility for a now closed 10,000-square-foot, 8-year-old center CHOP had operated in leased space about three miles away. CHOP owns the property where the new center was built.

CHOP has provided care for newborns, children and adolescents at the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro since 2009 through an affiliation agreement between two organizations.

Douglas Carney, senior vice president for facilities and construction management at CHOP, said the $19.8 million price tag for the Plainsboro center represents $13.8 million for construction costs, and another $6 million on site preparation and medical equipment and technology expenses.

Carney said the one-story structure was designed so it can be expanded to 100,000 square feet "very quickly if need be" based on demand.

The center will have between 15 and 20 employees on site on any given day. Thirty physicians from 14 subspecialties will see patients at the site.

Among the services areas covered in the center are allergy and immunology, cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, neurology, ophthalmology, orthopedics and urology.

Judi Lauria, CHOP's senior director for specialty care services in New Jersey, said the additional space allows CHOP to bring a complete array of rehabilitation services — including physical, occupational and speech therapy and sports medicine programs — to the new center. In fact, it features two "kid-friendly" rehab gyms. The Plainsboro center also has its own X-ray equipment, something the old center didn't have. It also has rooms for auditory brainstem response testing.

Another innovation at the Plainsboro site will be the use of patient traces, which will allow staff to track patient movement throughout the facility from the time they check in to when they are finished receiving care. "The idea is to identify any areas where efficiency can be improved," Lauria said. She noted the center was designed, and its ancillary services were laid out, with a goal of improving "the flow" of patients, their families and health care providers throughout the facility.

The services differ at each of the 10 specialty care centers CHOP operates, six in Pennsylvania and four in New Jersey.

"We do an extensive study and work with the community to determine what their needs are and what services to bring in," she said.

CHOP's next specialty care center is nearing completion in King of Prussia and will span 115,000 square feet.

"That one is like this one on steroids," Lambert said.

A new specialty care center is expected to open in Concordville later this year.

CHOP is also planning to open, in 2015:

• The 12-floor, 700,000-square-foot Buerger Center for Advanced Pediatric Care at its main campus in West Philadelphia.

• A primary care center in South Philadelphia that is being built in a partnership with the city as part of a complex that will also have a library, district health center and recreation center.

• A primary-care center in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.

CHOP is also planning to add an urgent care center, its third, at its Bucks County Specialty Care Center in Chalfont, Pa.

"We don't have anything else on the drawing board," Lambert said, "but new things come up all the time."

CHOP officials declined to provide a figure for how much it is spending on this year's project. A hospital spokeswoman said from 2012 through 2017, CHOP will spend nearly $2 billion to construct and renovate facilities to help it meet the growing demand its pediatric care services.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal