Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital to expand facilities over summer
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital has made plans for a major construction project set to begin during the summer of this year.
The hospital is planning for the construction of a 100,000-square-foot expansion project set to start late summer, said Peter Haigney, a spokesman for Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
The expansion includes a 42,000-square-foot expansion along French Street, an 8,000-square-foot expansion on Little Albany Street and a renovation project within the hospital that will encompass 50,000 square feet, Haigney said.
The expansion is part of a Master Facilities Project funded though the New Jersey Healthcare Finance Authority, Haigney said.
“In the Master Facility Plan of this scope and magnitude, there are literally hundreds of areas and services affected,” he said. “The larger portions are the intensive care unit, operating room and emergency department.
The projects are going to focus on expanding preoperative services, intensive care units and the emergency department, he said.
The French Street project will focus on the intensive care unit and operating room portion and the Little Albany project will focus on multiple internal reorganizations and the emergency department, he said.
The project’s construction time is estimated to take about 18 to 24 months to complete.
“Robin Wood Johnson has launched these projects to increase our capacity to increase access to and meet the demand for the specialty services and programs offered in our academic medical campus,” Haigney said.
The final cost of the expansion has not been finalized, but the expansion is expected to be a multimillion-dollar project.
“Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (is) in partnership with faculty at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and private physicians in the community forms New Jersey’s one true academic medical campus,” Haigney said.
The hospital is currently in the design phase but has received all of the planning board approvals necessary for the projects from the city of New Brunswick, he said.
The entire process has gone smoothly, he said. The hospital’s next steps are to submit its architectural and engineering plans to the New Jersey Department of Health and the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, who will perform the required reviews of the plans.
“We will then submit those plans to the city to receive a building permit in order to start construction," he said. “Designing hospitals is a complex endeavor and all of these steps are part of a normal process.”
Through these partnerships, the hospital is able to offer residents of New Jersey better medical care and equipment, Haigney said.
“Our hospital is able to offer residents of our state and region access to exceptional specialty medical services, advanced technology and research that is only available at the nation’s finest academic medical centers,” he said.
There is an increasing demand for these services from growing, diverse populations that Robert Wood Johnson serves, Haigney said.
"Our goal is to increase our capacity to meet this demand and improve access to these services for the individuals who need them," he said.
____
Nick Huber is a School of Arts and Sciences junior majoring in journalism and media studies. He is a contributing writer for The Daily Targum. He can be found on Twitter @njhuber95Huber.
