Step inside the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s Pavilion building and you’ll find it humming with activity – patients recovering from transplant surgeries or cancer treatments in comfortable private rooms with state-of-the-art technology, surgeons and interventionalists performing complex image-guided procedures side-by-side in “hybrid” operating rooms, emergency department staff deftly caring for patients with serious illnesses, many of whom will soon be admitted for treatment in patient rooms and operating rooms upstairs.
Just one year ago, on October 30, 2021, Penn Medicine celebrated the opening of this groundbreaking architectural feat with the transport of 310 patients across 34th Street from what has come to be known as HUP Main. The transition began with lights turned out in the old ED and the first patients welcomed in the new one; followed by a ceremonial ribbon-cutting, a parade of patients and care teams wheeling them across a balloon-festooned bridge and tunnel from HUP Main, and even a musical serenade by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
On its first birthday, we look back at the Pavilion’s launch and the many ways this “built for the future” hospital is already helping to catalyze positive change.
A New Hospital Rises
Penn Medicine has juggled numerous sizable projects in recent years: a move of the Trauma Center from HUP to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and the construction of the Pavilion for Advanced Care there, the expansion of Chester County Hospital, and Lancaster General Hospital’s ED renovation and proton therapy center construction at the Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute. The Pavilion’s scope made it the largest capital project in the history of the University of Pennsylvania.
The Pavilion is the latest jewel in a connected HUP campus which also includes more inpatient rooms and services at HUP Main across the street and outpatient care at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine (PCAM). It is the home of several key disciplines: cardiology and cardiac surgery, medical and surgical oncology, neurology and neurosurgery, as well as thoracic, vascular, and transplant surgery, along with a two-floor ED. Here’s just a few of its most interesting facets:
- Each patient room features a 75-inch “smart” monitor not only for entertainment, but for displaying information about the patient’s care team, any imaging scans or other types of tests they’ve had done, and controls for making the room more comfortable (automated window blinds, thermostat, lighting, etc.)
- The building features an advanced epilepsy monitoring unit and a human neurophysiology research lab, providing unmatched opportunities to connect neuroscience research and neurological care
- The Pavilion’s lobby is graced by a two-story mural by Philadelphia-based artist Odili Donald Odita, and a sculpture by internationally acclaimed artist Maya Lin
- For the myriad thoughtful ways it incorporates sustainable, “green” design and features, the building is the world’s largest project to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Healthcare Gold Certification, and is also the first U.S. hospital of 1 million square feet or larger to earn LEED Healthcare certification
The new spaces have made an obvious impact for many who work there. “I’m a big believer that environment plays a huge role in healing,” says Caleigh Falco, RN, BSN, a nurse on a Pavilion neuroscience unit. The Pavilion, she feels, is “bright, well-manicured, and impressively high-tech, making it easier for patients to feel more at home and comfortable in their own rooms.”
“It has got a hotel vibe,” agrees Vincent Bunting, Patient Services Manager with AVI Food Systems. “It’s not easy being in the hospital, so it’s better for patient experience to have more up-to-date rooms and have things more accessible for them.”
ONE HUP
But it’s not just the physical aspects of the Pavilion that are transformational. It also has ushered in a new era for HUP. As the vanguard project of the “One HUP” era, it has helped unite all of the hospital’s campuses – HUP Main, the Pavilion, PCAM, HUP Cedar, Penn Medicine Radnor, and the Interventional Support Center (ISC), opened last year, that will ultimately sterilize instruments for all of Penn Medicine’s Philadelphia hospitals and several suburban facilities. Now, staff at all of these locations are united as one under the HUP umbrella.
The transition team spent some time grappling with not only which services would move to the Pavilion and which would remain at HUP Main, but also how to foster a sense of unity among staff and physicians who work in either location (or both). And while the Pavilion was in its final stages before opening, the Health System also joined forces with Public Health Management Corporation to reinvent the former Mercy Catholic Medical Center – Mercy Philadelphia campus as HUP Cedar, an important component of a collaborative community public health campus in West Philadelphia.
“Our geography has expanded, but the identity started at 34th and Spruce, so One HUP was meant to describe the expanding campus licensed as HUP,” says Alyson Cole, associate executive director.
Finishing Touches
Although the One HUP campaign was well underway by the time the Pavilion opened for business, several finishing touches remained, from constructing the footbridge to the Penn Medicine SEPTA station along Convention Boulevard, to completing Harrison Garden, a respite from University City’s bustle between the Pavilion and the Penn Museum. Not long after opening, the Pavilion also unveiled Root & Sprig, a fast-casual restaurant by celebrated chef and television personality Tom Colicchio, and the Bower Café, a locally owned artisan coffee shop.
Across the street, plenty of work was happening as well, transforming the spaces at HUP Main whose occupants had moved to the Pavilion. “There were 13 units vacated on October 30th, and the next week we began the renovation process which is almost concluded,” recalls Cole. As a result, all of these vacated rooms have been refurbished as single-occupancy rooms, allowing patients more privacy and care providers more maneuverability on both sides of HUP.
“Now care can be more patient-focused because care providers can give their sole attention to the patient in the room,” says neurology nurse Amanda Capicchioni, BSN, RN, whose unit had double-occupancy rooms before moving to the Pavilion. “Rooms are so large and we can move around in them, patients can all look out the windows, and we can even easily shower patients.”
Grace Under Pressure
The creative planning toward designing the Pavilion as a “hospital of the future” paid off enormously. This past winter saw the throes of the Omicron surge of COVID-19, which taxed the resources of hospitals everywhere – and the Pavilion was ready.
The hospital’s staff tested new emergency response procedures, and adapted spaces to meet quickly changing demands to care for hundreds of COVID patients. For instance, Pavilion staff were able to convert an entire unit to negative pressure rooms, living up to its “future-proof” mission.
More to Come
Embodying Penn Medicine’s ethos of curiosity and continuous learning, leaders and staff in the Pavilion are constantly evaluating how it can become even better.
Teams solicited feedback from people who use the building – whether they’re wearing a Penn Medicine badge, a visitor tag, or a patient ID bracelet – into what can be improved, and acted upon those suggestions, such as initiating pilot programs to improve wayfinding in the building. The Emergency Department waiting areas will soon get seating expansion upgrades as well.
As another example, Kim Olthoff, MD, chief of Transplant Surgery, reports that the division’s physicians and staff are thrilled that the abdominal transplant patients are all co-located in the ICU and regular floor on 11 Center and 11 City to provide easy transition for patients and families. The transplant surgeons and OR teams enjoy always having the same four beautiful ORs, so equipment doesn’t have to constantly be shuffled and cases run more smoothly. The next step is to optimize the use of these spaces, including organizing the patient rooms and OR spaces better. “Penn focused a lot on patient satisfaction, now we’re focusing on staff satisfaction and efficiencies,” she says.
Other new enhancements for the Pavilion are planned. For example, in the coming months planned “wellness rooms” for staff are expected to open. These include fitness equipment, meditation spaces, massage chairs, and more.
On its first birthday, the Pavilion is still changing to meet the needs of those who use the space every day … more proof of the building’s “future-proof” nature as a vanguard of advanced academic medicine.
World Showcase
Stories of the Pavilion’s success have spread far and wide, attracting many health and hospital administrators, as well as design firm leaders, who seek to model their own care facilities after some of its innovations.
According to associate executive director, HUP Transition & Occupancy Alyson Cole, visitors studying its design have come from across the United States and as far away as Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Thailand: “It's rewarding to be able to show it off a little bit.”
The Pavilion First Year Milestones
500+ transplants
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60,000 radiology scans
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56,000+ ED visits
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~1,000 helicopter landings
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