Plans for new UMCP construction expand

Thanks to generous donations totaling over $115 million, Princeton HealthCare System is enhancing the new University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro and boosting its fundraising goal by $35 million. The new hospital will replace the existing University Medical Center at Princeton as part of PHCS.

Scheduled to open in March 2012, the facility will use its most recent donations to expand its Emergency Department, Pediatric Unit and Cancer Center, increase the number of inpatient beds for the elderly and complete two hybrid operating rooms for complex vascular surgery and intricate neurosurgery. The hospital also hopes to establish a partnership with a cancer research center to facilitate cancer studies, according to PHCS Vice President of Development Joe Stampe.

Because of the interest in donating, “Design for Healing,” the campaign to support the new hospital, is raising its fundraising goal for March 2013 from $115 million to $150 million.

Private donations to the campaign have been exceedingly generous, said Stampe.

“We’ve had 30 donations of $1 million or more,” he said. To date, the largest donors are David and Patricia Atkinson, whose $25 million donation remains “the largest gift ever given to a hospital in New Jersey,” according to Stampe. Over 6,000 private donors have contributed to “Design for Healing” since its launch five years ago.

“I believe the community shares our vision for what healthcare serving could be in our region,” Stampe said.

Funds raised through the campaign will supplement the $355 million in previous financing arranged by PHCS to construct the new hospital, which will move from downtown Princeton to the intersection of Route 1 and Scudders Mill Road in Plainsboro. According to its website, the hospital will use its 630,000 square feet of space for 237 single-patient rooms and will act as the focal point of a 171-acre Plainsboro Health Campus that is to include medical offices, fitness and wellness centers, health education, assisted living, independent living, daycare, skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers, pediatric services and passive recreation.

Medical care prices will remain unchanged, Stampe said, explaining that the hospital is working to be more cost-efficient in delivering its services.

“We have designed a hospital that is better in its use of energy, so it is more sustainable,” he said. “The cost savings there will be returned to patient care.”

One of the project’s goals, he said, is to have nothing but fresh air in patient and emergency rooms to reduce the spread of infection.

Stampe explained that “Design for Healing” has been run similarly to fundraising campaigns at universities, focusing on past donors that include hospital patrons, corporations and foundations. Fundraising goals were established through feasibility studies that took into account past giving, the hospital’s donor base and staff size. The campaign will continue through March 2013 and will include efforts to reach out to the Princeton community.

“We still have a number of folks who have not yet given who have used the hospital and expressed an interest,” Stampe said. “We are working actively with volunteers to solicit those individuals.”

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

The University Medical Center at Princeton has been named a 2010 Top Hospital by The Leapfrog Group for the third consecutive year, and is the only New Jersey hospital to receive this distinction three years in a row.