On January 19, 2022
University Hospital (UH) Newark, the state’s only general hospital, has awarded a contract to create a master plan for a new hospital for Gensler, a global architecture, design and planning firm with 49 locations across Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and the Americas.
This announcement is the latest step in a process that began with a $500,000 pledge from New Jersey’s FY 2022 budget to support planning efforts for a new hospital campus; It not only brings new facilities, but also serves as a modern and transformative investment in the health of the residents of Greater Newark. The pledge was announced in mid-April 2021 by New Jersey Governor Sheila Way Oliver and other state and local officials.
“As we move forward with our recovery from COVID-19, we cannot lose sight of the critical role that our health care system plays in the state. This is why Governor Murphy’s budget includes significant investments in quality of life to help make New Jersey a healthier place to live for all residents. We have,” said Governor Sheila Oliver, who serves as Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs in announcing the study’s funding. last April. “This proposed funding for the University Hospital, for a study to explore a new plan and design for its campus here in Newark, will help meet the needs of the hospital and allow it to improve delivery of care on which our communities depend so deeply, especially as we grapple with this pandemic.”
“First and foremost, the Newark Agreements have called on us to provide high-quality, equitable health care to people in Newark and Essex County,” said Sherif Nahal, MD, MBA, president and CEO of University Hospital. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the growing primary care needs of our community, a community that has been disproportionately affected by every adverse health outcome in this pandemic. As a result, we have never been busier before in meeting the growing health needs of our community, and our patients and families deserve a significant investment in their hospital infrastructure to serve them. This will not be another ivory tower – it will be designed with and for the greater Newark community, and use the best technology to meet that demand.”
Gensler’s selection follows a competitive selection process of companies qualified to provide professional planning services for the development of a campus redesign. UH will use the master plan as a guide for maintaining, adapting, renovating and potential redeveloping all existing facilities, as well as identifying new facilities to collectively enhance and improve the use of the spaces to meet the health care needs of the community in the next decade and beyond.
“This is not just an opportunity to help the university hospital plan for the future of its current facilities,” said James Crespino, director and lead healthcare provider at Gensler. “It’s an opportunity to continue defining a long-term laying foundation for advanced medical and health care for the greater Newark community.”
The current 519-bed university hospital, which opened in 1979, relies on its old infrastructure to meet the growing needs of the community it serves without any major capital investment since it first opened its doors. UH is the primary teaching hospital for Rutgers College of Medicine of New Jersey, New Jersey College of Dentistry, and any other medical education program in Newark. UH serves as the primary institution and hospital safety net for the city of Newark and surrounding communities. In 2021, the university hospital handled more than 83,000 emergency department visits, more than 15,500 inpatient admissions, and nearly 200,000 outpatient visits. As the only state-designated Level 1 trauma center for northern New Jersey, revolutionizing and expanding the facilities will allow UH to provide comprehensive care to its patients. UH also operates Rutgers Health University Hospital Ambulatory Care Center, which in its operations includes both primary and specialty clinics. Additionally, the University Hospital is affiliated with Rutgers Cancer Institute, New Jersey.
The new master plan will address the driving issues and principles of the present, and set a course for the next several decades. Gensler is expected to present an actionable plan that will help UH create cutting-edge, financially responsible solutions for the future.
Today’s announcement is the next step forward in the process of building a new university hospital for the future – on the foundations of a promise made in the past. This selection and the company’s work are in line with the Board of Directors’ ongoing commitment to keeping the process moving, and we look forward to Gensler’s master plan and recommendations for the revitalization and modernization of the University Hospital. Said Tanya Freeman, chair of the board of directors of the university hospital in the directors.
“This is an exciting opportunity to transform University Hospital and recommit to our community,” said Dr. Diane Hill, Chair of the University Hospital Community Oversight Board. “We have spent the past several years reconnecting with our community, most recently by creating our Community Advisory Board. I look forward to engaging the council and their representatives as this process moves forward.”
As a leading academic medical center, a renewed and expanded university hospital facility would also designate this campus as a destination where the academic and clinical functions of medicine converge for the ultimate benefit of patients. In partnership with Rutgers, this campus will become a national model for public health and a major regional resource for advanced services across many medical specialties.
said Brian L. Strom, President of Rutgers University for Medical and Health Sciences and Executive Vice President of Health Affairs, Rutgers University. “Designing a university hospital focused on the future will facilitate innovative training for our students and support life-changing medical breakthroughs for our patients. We are excited to help develop a plan that will greatly enrich the lives of our patients and members of our community.”
In recent years, hospitals and clinical leadership have worked tirelessly to achieve dramatic improvements in the quality of patient care and the financial performance of operations. Compared to 2018, UH significantly improved its quality metrics across a range of common hospital-acquired conditions, including Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI) at 40.3%; – Urinary tract infection associated with catheterization, 47.1%. Jim hard at 22.6%; and surgery site infection rate of 86.2%. UH has also improved the efficiency of care delivery, reduced length of stay by 7.3%, and met the National Vizient Standard for other complex academic medical centers across the country.
At the same time, without compromising on care, the hospital’s leadership team placed a heavy emphasis on operational efficiency, achieving the results the state comptroller called for in 2018. Through careful control of expenditures and smart capital investments, UH now boasts positive positive results after several years in denial. In terms of hospital recovery, University Hospital made the 2021 Forbes list of America’s Best Employers. The hospital continues to show continued improvement in its performance as part of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Report Card distributed each spring and fall. Financial performance continues to improve, and the hospital has completed nearly all of the recommended improvement steps requested by the state comptroller in 2018.
Local elected leaders applauded the university hospital’s potential transformation when study funding and planning were announced in April 2021:
“The expansion of the university hospital will help improve access to health care and services for Newark residents, while continuing to build on a strong commitment to our community,” said Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka. “I am grateful to see Dr. Beekeeper and for Governor Murphy’s leadership, state and county legislators, and local partners for their belief in the importance of the support this new facility can bring to so many families and enhance our entire health and medical community, especially as we emerge from the pandemic.”
Joseph N. Devincenzo, Jr., Essex County Executive Director, said, “The hospital has been an essential resource to enhance the health of our residents and contribute significantly to the economic stability of Newark and Essex County. The development of new infrastructure is long overdue and will enable UH to continue to provide high quality healthcare, medical and emergency care. quality for future generations.
“University Hospital has been and remains a well-established institution in the city of Newark and an asset to the state of New Jersey,” New Jersey Senator Teresa Ruiz said last April. “This tangible first step, to allocate funds to explore expanding their facilities, creates a path for its establishment as a much-needed flagship hospital and a long-awaited promise for my community. Not only does the new facility open its doors to provide patients with a better healthcare experience, it can create opportunities to expand the services provided and attract research funding With continued monetary financial support from the state, UH will continue to be a place that provides healthcare equality and will become one of the top biomedical universities in the country.”
“For more than 40 years, the current university hospital facility has been an integral part of the fabric of Newark and the state of New Jersey. It has provided care and treatment to hundreds of thousands of people, and has been an invaluable training, education, and resource The research is for medical professionals and students from across the country.” However, positive growth in the surrounding communities means that the facility is now struggling to meet the demands on it. For the good of society and the state, it’s time to plan for its replacement. The new hospital will allow us to make better use of the space and build with a plan for technology updates now and in the future. The new facility will also create opportunities to teach more students through Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, further strengthening our state’s position as a source for first-class medical professionals.”
“A university hospital is not only an essential component of our community, it is also part of our history and the primary source of health care and vital services that the residents of the area depend on,” said association member Shanik Speight. “Although UH has done an amazing job of meeting the growing needs of the community with a limited space, provisioning is necessary to expand its reach and increase its ability to adequately serve patients.”
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