UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three renovation projects on the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center campus are a step closer to reality today (Nov. 14) following action by the Penn State Board of Trustees Committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning.
The committee will recommend the appointments of architects for projects to renovate the space to be vacated next year by the Women’s Health Labor and Delivery unit on the third floor in the main Milton S. Hershey Medical Center hospital building and radiation/oncology space at Penn State Cancer Institute for a new linear accelerator that will be the first of its kind in Pennsylvania. The committee also recommended a proposal to approve plans and expend funds for renovations to the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU).
All of the committee’s recommendations will move to the full board for voting at its Nov. 15 meeting.
A Penn State Children’s Hospital expansion that includes three additional floors and one renovated floor will open in fall 2020. This expansion will accommodate the relocation of Women’s Health Labor and Delivery, Postpartum and Antepartum services from the third floor of the main Hershey Medical Center building. The vacated space will be renovated and used for additional adult inpatient rooms, allowing the hospital to eliminate multi-bed rooms on other units and re-arrange several clinical and support spaces to improve flow and efficient use of space.
The committee recommended the approval of the proposed appointment of Flad Architects of Madison, Wisconsin, to design the third floor hospital renovation.
The committee also recommended for approval the proposal of BDA Architects of Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, to design renovations to the Cancer Institute ground floor to accommodate the addition of a new MRI-guided linear accelerator that will move radiation treatment in the region into the future with 4D planning and treatment delivery.
Clinical teams use MRI‐guided linear accelerator technology for greater precision to accurately treat tumors while sparing healthy tissue. A multi‐phase renovation within the newly established Department of Radiation/Oncology will accommodate the new accelerator and associated support spaces, such as equipment storage and care team work and planning space.
The radiation/oncology space renovations are anticipated to start in March 2020 and take approximately two years.
Finally, the committee recommende for approval the proposed final plans and expense of the $13 million budget for renovations to the PACU at Hershey Medical Center.
The renovated PACU space will include 22 new patient care stations, a nurse station, staff areas (locker room and lounge), a nourishment area, laundry storage, equipment storage, physician work space and support space for family and visitors. The space was formerly occupied by three operating room suites in the hospital’s South Addition that are being decommissioned after completion this fall of three state-of-the-art operating rooms above the recent Emergency Department building expansion.
The PACU project comes as a follow-up to an overall Emergency Department expansion begun in November 2017 that includes renovation of existing space and construction of a two-story addition that adds about 9,900 square feet to the 34,000-square-foot Emergency Department footprint.
The first phase of the Emergency Department expansion project was completed in May, with phase two expected to be completed next year.