CAMDEN, N.J., June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cooper Health System announced plans today for a $117 million capital project at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ, during an outdoor reception on its campus. Cooper welcomed Governor James McGreevey and Majority Leader Joseph Roberts and over a hundred community and business leaders from across the South Jersey region and the City of Camden in unveiling the plans slated for the hospital as well as continued plans for the revitalization of Camden.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040618/PHF011 )
The $117 million project at Cooper is a direct reflection of the tremendous growth in services that Cooper experienced over the past several years. The largest of the Cooper facility projects includes a six-story pavilion in Camden that will help to meet the rising demands of hospital services.
“Cooper is honored to have Governor McGreevey, Assembly Majority Leader Roberts and our other distinguished guests, share in the enthusiasm of the revitalization of Camden. Cooper’s significant expansion will help assure that the future of Camden and the future of Cooper University Hospital is here,” states Charles E. Sessa, Jr., Chairman, Cooper Board of Trustees.
The plans include a major renovation of existing facilities and substantial new construction that will expand the scope of medical services offered to residents of South Jersey and revolutionize the way the hospital services are organized. This development will involve the largest physical expansion of the hospital in nearly 30 years. Cooper University Hospital, home of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Camden, has experienced tremendous growth in its clinical programs and patient utilization in recent years, and has reached the level of being one of the most sophisticated health care providers in the South Jersey and Delaware Valley region. The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is also committed to expanding its medical educational and research facilities on Cooper’s Health Science Campus in Camden.
“Under this plan, Cooper will enhance our campus environment, the hospital facade, and vehicular and pedestrian access,” stated Mr. Sessa. “The hospital’s new configuration will also permit the redesign and expansion of Cooper’s cardiovascular and surgical facilities, as well as the expansion of critical care and emergency service areas. It will redefine how Cooper is presented within the revitalized City of Camden.”
The first phase of this five-year, multi-phase project focuses on major renovation of the existing facilities in the Kelemen Pavilion with the addition of two operating rooms, bringing the total to 12 OR suites; expansion of existing adult critical care services, increasing from 19 beds to 24; and the relocation of pediatric critical care services to the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper, keeping all children’s services in the same location within the hospital and increasing the current number of 5 Pediatric Intensive Care beds to 6.
The second phase involves construction of a new six-story Patient Care Pavilion in the center of the existing hospital complex extending toward the north side of the health science campus. Once completed, the new pavilion will greatly expand Cooper University Hospital’s highly specialized critical care and trauma services as well as more than double Cooper’s private patient rooms. The new 140,000-square-foot patient care pavilion will include a 30-bed state-of-the-art critical care medical service. The pavilion will also include 60 private acute care patient rooms, more than doubling Cooper’s private patient room capacity.
The new patient rooms are necessary to support the increased demand for Cooper’s Centers of Excellence - Cooper’s Level One Trauma Center, the Cooper Heart Institute, Cooper Critical Care, the Cooper Bone and Joint Institute, and the Cancer Center of New Jersey at Cooper. Cooper’s emergency department will also be expanded by 50 percent adding 7,000 square feet to better serve the community and the entire southern New Jersey region. “Over the past year Cooper has had tremendous success in recruiting world-class physicians who are international leaders in their fields in cardiology, critical care medicine, orthopaedic surgery, and oncology,” says Christopher T. Olivia, MD, Cooper’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “I’m proud and excited that we will provide them a state-of-the-art environment in which to work.”
Cooper has currently applied to borrow up to $80 million of the $117 million capital project, with $13 million to be funded through proceeds from the Camden Revitalization and Economic Recovery Initiative passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor McGreevey. The remainder will be primarily funded by Cooper University Hospital operating funds.
The Cooper Health System is the premier provider of comprehensive health services and advanced medical technology in southern New Jersey. The System’s flagship healthcare facility, Cooper University Hospital, is a 526-bed teaching hospital and clinical campus of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Camden, New Jersey. Cooper University Hospital is the regional referral center for cardiac surgery, adult and pediatric critical care, neonatology, and is the Level One Trauma Center of Southern New Jersey. The University hospital system is known for its clinical excellence through the Cooper Heart Institute, the Cooper Bone and Joint Institute, Cooper Critical Care, and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey at Cooper. As a clinical and core teaching campus for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-Camden, Cooper has become a national leader in medical education and research. Cooper is the largest employer in the City of Camden and sixth largest employer in southern New Jersey.
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CONTACT: Peggy Leone, Cooper University Hospital, +1-856-342-3332
