June 2014 Update: A Message from Michele Volpe & Garry Scheib

Garry Scheib
Executive Director, HUP
CEO, UPHS

Michelle Volpe
Executive Director, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center

Dear colleagues,

The excitement is building … or more precisely, it’s TWO buildings at Penn Presbyterian. Despite a harsh winter, construction has continued unabated on a pair of remarkable, gleaming additions to the 38th & Market campus and skyline.

First, when construction is completed the brand new home of the Penn Medicine Level 1 Trauma Center and will represent the shift of Penn Medicine’s world-class trauma facility from HUP to PPMC on February 4, 2015. Along with the new structure, HUP’s 200-person-strong trauma team will be coming as well, joining the Penn Presbyterian family.

The Trauma Center at Penn Presbyterian will be located in the luminous Pavilion for Advanced Care. Housing an extraordinary array of technology and features, the Center will literally provide life-saving care from top to bottom, beginning with a roof-based helipad for the PENNStar flight program -  to the ground floor 5-bay trauma resuscitation unit. In addition to the trauma center and emergency services expansion, the Pavilion will be home to Penn Medicine’s first Heart and Vascular intensive care unit, the Trauma and Surgical intensive care unit, and Perioperative Services.

As part of the trauma center shift, other services coming to the Pavilion include neurosurgery, neurocritical care, neuroradiology, and facial trauma. Add to the mix enhanced lab and diagnostic services and PPMC will be fully transformed into a twenty-four-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, high-activity care institution.

Penn Medicine University City -- a stunning new 13-story ambulatory care tower-- is our second major capital addition. This ultramodern structure reflects our commitment to meet the changing needs of our patients and the shifting health care climate, which emphasizes expanding options for outpatient care. It will include over 100 exam rooms, a six operating room outpatient Surgery Center , clinics, and an outpatient medical imaging and diagnostic services center. The first patients will start coming through the doors August 4th.

The Penn Musculoskeletal Center, the first of its kind in Philadelphia, will also be located at Penn Medicine University City. By integrating the related service lines of orthopaedics, rheumatology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and pain medicine, it will offer patients seeing multiple specialists easier-in, easier-out convenience (across the hall, not across town) that will enhance the healing process. En suite radiology services will further increase expediency. And our clinicians will find it more practical to collaborate and share ideas.

The Pavilion for Advanced Care and Penn Medicine University City are the first major capital additions to the Penn Presbyterian campus in twenty years. They incorporate an array of design features to accelerate patient flow, thereby improving the patient and family experience. Staff members will enjoy more opportunities to share knowledge and learn from each other. Areas opened up by the relocation of services to the new buildings will be re-designed over time in accordance with the latest design principles.

We will be holding our latest round of all-employee meetings across both the HUP and PPMC campuses in mid-summer to discuss more details surrounding the transfer of the trauma center, such as timing and human resource program details.

Finally, we will be providing regular email updates as the big days draw near! In the meantime, please contact our offices if you have any questions about these coming changes

Sincerely, Michele Volpe & Garry Scheib