Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia Opens New Inpatient Hospital In King of Prussia
KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (CBS) -- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in King of Prussia officially opened on Wednesday. The new $289 million suburban pediatric hospital is now taking care of patients and providing emergency services.
CHOP has satellite offices spread around the region. Now by popular demand from families, there's also a new suburban hospital.
The first patients are being treated at the new Middleman Family Pavilion.
CHOP is spreading its wings, opening a second hospital in King of Prussia.
"We are very excited, this has been a long time coming," said Cara Rakow, associate chief of nursing officer at the Middleman Family Pavilion.
In addition to the 52 private rooms, there's an intensive care unit and the first dedicated pediatric emergency department in Montgomery County, close to where many patients live. A drive to the city is no longer necessary to get these hospital services.
"We're helping to give families ease of access to our high quality pediatric care as well as that closeness to home," Rakow said.
Rakow says beyond convenience, CHOP desperately needed the additional space being provided by the new facility. The four operating rooms are outfitted with a new lighting system that accommodates different kinds of procedures.
"Also at night time or when the room is vacant for a period, UV lights come on and they work around the clock to disinfect the room and really reduce the risk of infection," Cheryl Gebeline-Myers said.
In the 20-bed emergency department, each room has natural light and different murals.
"As you can see, they're all Philadelphia, New Jersey themed, trying to pull our community closer into the room and into the feeling of the KOP hospital," Rakow said.
Mixing entertaining visuals with state-of-the-art medicine.
Several specialties will be located at the new CHOP KOP, including orthopedics and plastic surgery, and there will be ambulances always on stand-by to transport critical cases to the main campus in Philadelphia.