By HFT Staff

Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Pemberton Township, New Jersey, broke ground on a $108 million capital expansion and renovation project. This is the first major capital expansion at Deborah’s Browns Mills campus since the mid 1990s, when the hospital added and renovated more than 120,000 square feet of space, and then again in 2018 when a 60,000-square-foot freestanding medical office building was dedicated. 

The project will bring a reimagined experience to patients and staff, with all aspects of the design focused on their comfort and convenience.  

“Deborah clinical and support staff were fully engaged in the planning of the new and renovated space,” says Joseph Chirichella, president and CEO of Deborah Heart and Lung Center.  “Our facilities team created a simulated patient room to the exact drawing specifications where staff was able to provide their suggestions for how the space should be designed.  When completed, all patient rooms will be private, all new rooms will be critical care and isolation capable, and there will be a floor of dedicated respite space for staff with indoor and outdoor covered lounges, as well as quiet rooms.” 

New construction includes a three-story vertical addition to existing hospital space, having a total of 36 private patient rooms. Three existing patient care units will be renovated following the new construction, bringing the hospital’s total licensed bed count to 95. Also included are upgrades to the hospital’s cardiac catheterization labs, a new pharmacy clean-room, and new robotic technology in the electrophysiology labs. Throughout the new construction and renovations, the most advanced digital and electronic systems have been integrated.