Breaking New Ground is our community outreach effort to engage you in building the new University Medical Center at Princeton. Through this effort, we will explore the many aspects of building a new hospital - from design through construction right up to our grand opening. We will do this through personal meetings, regular updates in print publications and this new web site.

Care That Is Exceptional

University Medical Center at Princeton is committed to bringing new services and technologies to central New Jersey. Over the past several years, we have opened a medically based fitness center and expanded the range of care we can provide by launching new clinical programs. These include an emergency angioplasty program for treating patients who are experiencing heart attacks, advanced maternal-fetal medicine services for women with high-risk pregnancies, an emergency neurosurgery program and a bariatric surgery program for individuals who want to overcome severe obesity. By breaking new ground with the building of our hospital, we will be firmly positioned to continue this innovation and serve your changing healthcare needs for the long term.

Care That Is Centered on You

Because you deserve to be completely happy and pleased with the care you receive, the new University Medical Center at Princeton will be carefully and thoughtfully designed with you in mind. We want to offer a supportive and friendly atmosphere for patients, family, physicians and staff. By breaking new ground and building a culture of clinical excellence, we will ensure that we help you achieve optimum health and wellbeing.

Care That Is in Tune With You

We realize that being a patient in a hospital can be very stressful. The environment that surrounds you - everything from the sights, sounds, colors, textures and scents - greatly affects your experience as a patient and has a tremendous impact on your recovery. The new University Medical Center at Princeton will utilize the latest evidence-based design concepts to make you comfortable by promoting relaxation and maximizing your privacy. Our new hospital will promote comfort by managing noise, bringing in natural light and creating private spaces for patients and families to talk.

The new hospital will be surrounded by open space and bordered by a lake and a river, so our patients will receive care in an environment that is beautiful and naturally conducive to healing.

Care That Is Responsible

In designing the new hospital, we will break new ground in environmental responsibility and safety. We will attain energy efficiency through the design and positioning of the building and the choice of the best windows, heating and air conditioning systems. To ensure patient safety and comfort, we will incorporate the finest materials, lighting and air handling systems. We are sincerely committed to following the very best practices in environmentally responsible healthcare design.

Care That Is Accessible

It is part of our mission to provide outstanding care to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay, and we are proud to fulfill that mission. We are looking forward to being in our new site, where we will be able to do this even more effectively. Even though the new site is closer to most of the patients we serve, we will certainly address patients' access needs. We will work to provide convenient access to our services through transportation solutions. The new University Medical Center at Princeton will be more centrally located at our new home on Route 1 in Plainsboro. This location is closer to 70 percent of the patients we have traditionally served - the areas that have the fastest growing populations in the region. We are also working closely with transportation officials, municipal leaders and other groups to make it even easier to get to our new site. We are optimistic that changes will be made. The new site will also offer plentiful parking.

Care That Is Committed

We plan to serve 1 million cases over the next five years as we build a new hospital, so it certainly is a priority to continue to do a superb job serving you at our current facility. To do so, we will invest approximately $40 million in capital improvements in our current site over the next four years. This includes a $10 million investment in a state-of-the-art clinical information system with the latest electronic medical records technology. This ground-breaking system will be the foundation for a truly complete lifetime medical record - to better serve you and our physicians.

Get Involved

We are committed to being a good neighbor, and we are relying on you to tell us how you feel about us. We will host forums where you can openly share your expectations of us as a neighbor, employer and healthcare provider. The identification of a potential site for the hospital in Plainsboro is the beginning of a process of working and communicating with Plainsboro government officials and the residents in the community so we can accommodate the community's priorities. It has been gratifying to hear area residents' enthusiastic response to our plans, and we would like to build on this enthusiasm through careful planning and sensitivity to the needs of the people who may be our new neighbors.

Merwick Relocation

As we prepare to build a new hospital, PHCS is also preparing to enhance our long-term care and acute rehabilitation services. PHCS plans to relocate Merwick Care Center, currently located on Bayard Lane in Princeton, to the new hospital campus. University Medical Center at Princeton's Acute Rehabilitation Unit, currently on the Merwick campus, also will be relocated to the new hospital. The Merwick Care Center and UMCP Acute Rehabilitation Unit will continue to provide excellent, uninterrupted care and service to patients and residents at their current sites and after their respective relocations.