PLAINSBORO — This morning a procession of ambulances moved patients out of the University Medical Center of Princeton to a brand new $522 million facility in Plainsboro.

The new hospital, the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, opened today after a decade of planning and construction.

The Plainsboro hospital, at 630,000 square feet, is 50 percent bigger than the old one a few miles away in Princeton. All of the new 231 patient rooms are single-occupancy. The concave, shiny building is built to maximize the use of sunlight, even on overcast days. Color-coded departments triage patients to different wings of the hospital as they come into the hospital. The campus has its own natural gas power plant that recycles the heat of the exhaust to generate yet more power. The entire building is replenished with fresh air from the roof, which has been proven in clinical studies to reduce infections.

Roughly 1,200 studies were consulted to maximize the therapeutic effects of nearly everything in the building, according to Barry Rabner, the president and CEO of Princeton HealthCare System. A two-year study undertaken by the hospital of other facilities determined that joint replacement patients got better and were happier in the standardized, identical rooms of the new hospital, which has strategically-placed handrails, nightlights and bathrooms. The staggered lighting on the hallway walls is designed to be less disorienting than the 'strobe-effect' overhead lights of a traditional hospital hallway.

And then there’s the little things with design that mean so much, say nurses and doctors. Computer terminals, medications, and general supplies are within cabinets accessible in each room. So now the doctor or nurse can minister to one patient – and stay in the room and talk with that same person while she updates records, checks medications, and even grabs a few more linens upon patient request.

"When a person is sick, every moment counts," said Alicia Calisto, a nurse in the telemetry unit caring for heart patients for six years. "The patient is the center of everything now. It’s not rocket science — but it’s the simple things that make the biggest difference."

Marilyn Russo, a 69-year-old farmer from Chesterfield, said she’s glad to be rehabbing her two replaced knees in newfound comfort.

"It’s like a 5-star hotel," Russo said, chuckling. "This is beautiful."

Related coverage:

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