If you watch people enter the University of Maryland Medical Center’s new Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building, you will notice them looking up toward the sky. What catches the eye is a magnificent, seven-story glass-covered atrium. Inside the large atrium, bathed with natural light from the windows above, visitors on the first floor can see a fountain and two garden terraces filled with plants and trees on the third and fifth levels. Red oak panels and a red brick wall decorate sides of the massive atrium.

The view is not what most people expect in a hospital building, but it is compatible with the architectural theme of the adjacent Gudelsky Building’s atrium (built in 1994) and the historic dome across the street on top of Davidge Hall, dating from 1812. The medical center’s goal is to be a “hospitable” hospital that is comforting and cheerful, open and hopeful to patients and their families at a time of anxiety and stress.

The atrium, called the Morton and Rosalie Rapoport Atrium in honor of Dr. Mort Rapoport’s (’60) more than 20 years of leadership at the hospital, gives visitors just a taste of the many special features of this new building. The atrium ties together an array of new, impressive, state-of-the-art patient care areas, including one of the country’s most technologically advanced surgical facilities, an expansive diagnostic radiology department and a new, large and modern emergency department with separate sections for adult and pediatric patients. The building’s top three floors will house surgical and medical ICUs and acute care units when construction is complete within the next two years.

 “Everybody loves this new facility,” says Roger W. Voigt, MD, assistant professor and head of the division of pediatric surgery who is also medical director of the medical center’s operating rooms. “It’s a huge plus for our patients, families and staff. Not only is it bright, clean and spacious, we have technical capabilities in the new ORs with video and imaging that have put us at the leading edge,” adds Dr. Voigt, who was a leader in designing the new surgical facility.

Sections of the 380,000-square-foot Weinberg Building opened in phases, starting in the fall of 2002. The first was a spacious and cheerful new emergency department with 54 private exam rooms, the latest digital diagnostic equipment and large, comfortable waiting areas. Natural light streams into part of the waiting area through a two-story wall of windows that extends along Lombard Street.

The entrance to the new, 45,000 square foot emergency facility, in the 600 block of West Lombard Street, is adjacent to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. Now all of the medical center’s emergency services are located together for the first time. The adult and pediatric emergency departments continue to have their own waiting, reception and treatment areas, in order to focus on the specific needs of adult and pediatric patients.

“The emergency department is the front door for many of our patients. Almost half of our admissions each year come through the ED,” says Brian Browne, MD, head of emergency medicine at the medical center and professor of surgery at the medical school. “First impressions are important, and everyone is proud of this facility. The rooms are spacious and private, and family members can sit with patients without getting in anyone’s way. Also, we have the most modern technology for improved diagnostic and clinical care, putting us ahead of the curve.”

The facility has the latest digital radiological equipment, such as a 16-slice CT scan, ultrasound and X-ray. It has electronic order entry as well as computerized retrieval of medical records, a digital radiology (PAX) system and a rapid diagnostics laboratory. The ED also continues to offer a fast track area; so patients with less critical emergencies can be seen in a timely way.

“We have always provided excellent, comprehensive emergency care for more than 60,000 adults and children each year, and we now have very attractive, welcoming and comfortable facilities to complement that high quality care,” adds Dr. Browne, who has worked in the hospital’s adult emergency department for 19 years. The new facility also includes a dedicated psychiatric urgent care area.

“Our pediatric emergency department is designed for the individual needs of our patients, who range in age from newborns to teenagers,” says Richard Lichenstein, MD, director of pediatric emergency medicine at the medical center and associate professor of pediatrics at the medical school.

“We are equipped with state-of-the-art monitoring, radiology and laboratory equipment and the exam rooms provide a cheerful, private and quiet environment,” says Dr. Lichenstein. The pediatric emergency department also has a children’s playroom staffed by child life specialists.

The medical center’s emergency services are a statewide resource, providing access to every medical and surgical specialty and treating patients transported from throughout Maryland as well as from the surrounding Baltimore community. And Dr. Browne says the new facility’s technology and additional space have opened the door to innovative clinical studies, such as collaboration with neurology to provide comprehensive assessment and treatment within 24 hours for patients with transient ischemic attacks (TIA).

The new surgical facility, called the “OR of the Future,” opened in June 2003. The facility has 19 operating rooms for adult and pediatric patients, two minor procedure rooms, a 28-bed post-anesthesia care unit, and a same-day surgery center designed for optimal patient comfort. The facility also has a new surgical preparation center, with a separate prep area exclusively for children.

Just as the medical center’s emergency facilities are now all located adjacent to each other, the new operating rooms are next to the Shock Trauma Center’s ORs, and they share an expansive new PACU.
Dr. Voigt is especially pleased with the Pediatric Same Day Surgery Center. “It’s a beautiful environment with a calming atmosphere for children and their families. In fact, I’ve heard some of the kids who came here for surgery say, ‘Wow—this is so cool.’” The child-friendly theme can even be found in the operating room. When children are wheeled in, they see brightly colored walls where fish, whales, turtles and even smiling children and a dog wearing scuba gear are swimming.

The surgical facility occupies 52,000 square feet and combines the most advanced video and communications equipment with information technology to enhance patient safety and operational efficiency. The medical center performs more than 16,000 surgeries each year.

“These operating rooms have been built from the ground up. They are 30 percent larger than our former ORs and bring together the latest technology to do the most advanced surgical procedures. While other hospitals have installed some of these technologies, we are unique in that we have tied them all together throughout the new facility,” says John W, Ashworth, CEO of the medical center.

The operating rooms have advanced, built-in video systems with easily movable monitors and tiny endoscopic cameras to assist surgeons performing a variety of minimally invasive procedures. Other monitors make vital patient information, such as lab results, MRI and CT scans, immediately and easily accessible to the surgical team.

Almost all of the equipment—cameras, lights, monitors, and various instruments—is stored on a docking station attached to a boom from the ceiling. “That arrangement eliminates clutter, improves patient safety and gives us closer and better access to images. Also, we can replace equipment components when necessary without any down time for the room,” says Dr. Voigt.

Another feature is a voice-activated system that allows the surgeon to move the operating table, adjust the camera and lights, and perform other functions without turning away from the patient or seeking assistance from others in the room. The robot talks back to confirm the surgeon’s instructions.

“The new OR facility is ideal for what we do here,” says Stephen T. Bartlett, MD, the medical center’s acting chief of surgery and professor and acting chairman of surgery at the medical school. “Most of our surgical cases are not routine. They require specialized equipment and room for additional people. These ORs were designed with specialized cases in mind, for advanced vascular, cardiac, cancer, and other procedures.”

Dr. Bartlett adds, “The informatics make a big difference. We can immediately call up patient data, such as imaging studies, on monitors right next to the operating table; so we can plan the surgery and make adjustments during the case based on real time information. It’s an enormous advantage and I believe it enhances patient safety.”

Many of the rooms have telemedicine capability with live, two-way audio and video feeds, showing the entire room as well as inside the patient’s body during videoscopic procedures. These telemedicine connections present new opportunities for medical education, whether those being trained are down the hall, across the country, or around the world. And monitors throughout each room are enhancing the educational experience for medical students, who can obtain close up views of surgeries from anywhere in the room.
Wide-view cameras located in the operating rooms are also used to keep the OR activities running efficiently. The cameras beam images to video monitors located in a secure control room. From there, coordinators know when to prepare the room for the next patient, and they can immediately find out if extra help or equipment may be needed.

The facility also was designed to reduce the chance of infection with installation of a nefsw, state-of-the-art sterile processing department. All sterilized instruments enter the operating rooms from one hallway and exit by a different route after they are used. A sterile storage corridor lining the back of the operating rooms protects those supplies, yet affords the surgical teams easy access to what they need.

To reduce the risk of patient exposure to airborne impurities, a special air handling system filters out microscopic impurities. Purified air comes into each operating room from the center of the ceiling, directly above the patient. Then, the air is drawn out through vents near the floor, on the perimeter of each room.
One of the rooms is outfitted with galvanized steel walls to house an MRI scanner, so that surgeons have real-time images to guide them in very delicate procedures, such as removing a brain tumor. “The new building has had a positive impact on patient care and also on the successful recruitment of new faculty,” says Dr. Bartlett.

One new faculty member is Adrian Park, MD, the head of general surgery who moved to Baltimore from Kentucky last year. “There is no question that this facility played a role in my decision to come here. The University of Maryland is now positioned as a leader in the OR of the future, not just for today but in the years to come.”

More innovations are planned in coming months. For example, grants from the Verizon Foundation will help develop wireless software for a number of applications that give the surgical staff easier access to lab results and other patient information. And, the staff will test a password-protected system in which they can use their personal digital assistants (PDAs), to see inside each of the 19 operating rooms from elsewhere, for enhanced efficiency.

With support from the Maryland congressional delegation, some of the new operating room equipment has been funded by a grant from the U.S. Army’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center through a Department of Defense appropriation.

The Weinberg Building is named for the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, which provided the lead gift for the project. Funding also came from a combination of other private and public sources, including the state of Maryland.

In addition to the clinical facilities, the Weinberg Building houses a large cafeteria (the Courtyard Café), an adjacent food court, a new chapel, a patient resource center that provides access to a wealth of health information and community resources, and an employee learning center.

To get to the Weinberg Building, visitors come through the medical center’s main entrance at 22 S. Greene Street or through the Gudelsky Building entrance at the corner of Greene and Lombard streets. The emergency department entrance is just off Lombard, at Penn Street. “We certainly welcome visits and inquiries from physicians who would like to see what we are doing here, and we’d like to hear from those interested in connecting with our operating rooms using telemedicine,” says Dr. Voigt.

"There’s real enthusiasm here because of the Weinberg Building, and also because of the other impressive new buildings on campus, such as the medical school’s new Health Sciences Facility II. These buildings are a physical representation of the vision and growth at the medical center and the university campus," says Dr. Bartlett. "You get the impression that this place is on the upswing - and of course, it is."

  Highlights of Maryland's Weinberg Building: