Preparing for the Princeton Hospital Move

For nearly eight months, staff and administrators at the University Medical Center of Princeton have been preparing for one day: May 22, 2012.

That’s the day when staff and patients will leave Witherspoon Street and move into the new hospital off Route 1 in Plainsboro.

“We will begin (the move) at 8 a.m. and expect to be done six hours later,” CEO Barry Rabner said.

The hospital hired Facility Development Inc., Phoenix, Ariz. to help plan the move. The company has done more than 200 similar moves, Rabner said.

History of the New Hospital

Construction on the new $445 million hospital complex off Route 1 in Plainsboro began in October 2008 after hospital officials decided they needed a larger facility than could be accommodated on the nine-acre parcel on Witherspoon Street.
The 171-acre property is located between Scudders Mill and Plainsboro roads.

The new location is also closer to 70 percent of the people the hospital traditionally serves, Rabner said.

The new campus also includes buildings for office research, assisted living, nursing and a fitness and wellness center.

The new hospital will have 235 beds in single-patient rooms compared to 215 beds in Princeton in double-patient rooms. The new site can also accommodate construction of additional patient rooms in the future.

The Nuts and Bolts of the Move

Hospital officials will stop scheduling elective procedures several days before the move, which should reduce the number of patients on move day to about 100, down from an average day of about 220, Rabner said.

All hospital staff will be on duty during the move- no days off, vacations or holidays.

On Monday, May 21, doctors will evaluate the medical status each patient and will do so again on the morning of May 22.

“Assuming a patient is safe to be transferred, a team will go up to their room and escort the patient downstairs and out to the waiting ambulance,” Rabner said. “The team (including an RN) will go with the patient to the new hospital and escort them to their new room at the hospital.”

Family members will be directed to Plainsboro and to a specific area in the hospital. As soon as a patient is in the new room, the family will be allowed to visit.

Rabner is quick to note that patients on one floor will not be escorted at the same time. Rather, to minimize the potential for rush and chaos, patients will be individually escorted from different locations.

For example, the first patient may be taken from their room on the west end of the sixth floor, but the next patient will be moved from their room on the east end of the third floor.

“The only place that will be busy will be the entrance to the emergency room,” Rabner said.

Police officers will be stationed at each intersection as the ambulances drive the three miles to the new hospital.

While it may seem odd to move on a Tuesday, Rabner said it is to make sure that if something goes wrong, the right people are available to fix it. For example, the hospital has 18 elevators and a kitchen and if the move happened on a Sunday, and something went wrong, it would be much more difficult to find someone available to troubleshoot a problem.

Which Hospital Should I Go To?

Patients who need to go to the hospital on May 22 should go to the new hospital in Plainsboro, Rabner said, although both hospitals will technically be open that day.

The next day, Wednesday, May 23, the hospital in Princeton will be closed, although there will be an ambulance stationed at the entrance to the emergency room for anyone who may show up.

Traffic on the Day of the Move

Rabner does not expect that moving patients will tie up much local traffic, because he estimates there will be 100 trips over a six-hour period.

The hospital has outlined a primary route to the route to Plainsboro and two backup routes.

The main ambulance route will exit the emergency department, turn left onto Franklin Street, right onto Moore Street, left on Hamilton Street, right onto Harrison Street to Route 1, then left onto Route 1 north and right onto Plainsboro Road and into the hospital campus to the east entrance.

Preparing for the Move

The hospital’s Information Technology department moved into the new building in mid-March and virtually all of the hospital’s employees have been involved in transition planning, Rabner said.

Most of the hospital’s records are electronic and those that are not have already been moved to the new location, along with furniture and equipment. The hospital has hired a moving company to help with the rest.

Beginning April 9, more than 600 employees will go through intensive orientation at the new hospital, practicing different scenarios to make sure that when the facility opens, they are prepared for anything.

What Happens Next?

Whatever the hospital staff do not move to the hospital will either be donated or sold, Rabner said. Then, once the building is empty, it can be decommissioned.

The hospital will continue to maintain the building’s exterior. The building will be locked and the temperature controlled inside.

Meanwhile Avalon Bay is under contract to buy the property. The plan is to demolish the seven-story 500,000-square-foot building and build rental apartments.

Avalon will soon introduce a concept plan to the Princeton Regional Planning Board, although some residents have expressed concern because the developer wants to boost the number of allowed units at the site without proportionally increasing the number of affordable housing units.