Hackensack University Medical Center Helena Theurer Pavilion

The Hackensack University Medical Center Helena Theurer Pavilion – one of the largest healthcare expansion projects in new Jersey history – is a new surgical and intensive care tower that has become recognized as a global destination in providing state-of-the-art spaces for treatment, teaching, and work.

This eleven-story, 530,000 s.f. building incorporates 24 operating rooms, including New Jersey’s first intraoperative MRI system, as well as 50 intensive care patient rooms, 25 universal patient rooms, 100 medical/surgical patient rooms, and 50 orthopedic patient rooms.

RSC Architects, along with the rest of the project team, solved the complicated design challenge of accommodating all of the Pavilion’s necessary programs within the available floor plate by spanning the tower over the public roadway. Now, all adult inpatient surgeries are performed on two new floors of operating rooms, with six da Vinci robotic surgical systems and a new central sterile processing department providing necessary support. Dedicated CT imaging is also incorporated on the ICU floor.

All of the Pavilion’s patient rooms – designed to elicit feelings of warmth and comfort – are equipped with the latest technology and amenities, including in-room, bedside tablets to control lights, shades, and room temperature, as well as a 65-inch television to video chat with loved ones. Clinicians and nurses also use this integrated technology to easily access patient vitals and their care plan from a workstation-equipped nursing “cockpit” without the need to enter the patient’s room.

Further demonstrating the hospital’s commitment to health, treatment, and well-being, with the flip of a switch, the entire facility can be converted to negative pressure should a public health event require isolation, safeguarding patients, doctors, and staff from airborne disease outbreaks and proving their pandemic readiness.

RSC Architects served as the Architect-of-Record for this project, and partnered with Page as the Design/Medical Planning Architect and Architect-of-Record for the interior build-out.