About The David H. Koch Center
When NewYork-Presbyterian’s leadership set out to develop a new, world-class ambulatory care center, they started with a simple question: what will exceptional ambulatory care — both the clinical care and the total patient experience — look like in the future, and how can we make that vision a reality today? The trend in healthcare is increasingly moving toward delivering care, whenever possible, in an ambulatory setting. More than ever, procedures can be performed safely and effectively on an outpatient basis, allowing patients to resume their lives with minimal disruption.
From the beginning, doctors, nurses, staff and patients were intimately involved in the development of the NewYork-Presbyterian David H. Koch Center, and every decision, in planning this state-of-art facility, considered the patient first. This collaborative, patient-centered approach resulted in a number of exciting ideas and innovations that are central to the design of the building and its function. We’re proud of what we have built together. NYP David H. Koch Center is, first and foremost, a commitment to our patients and our institution’s core values, a promise that NewYork-Presbyterian is focused on delivering exceptional care and the best patient experience — to every patient — now and into the future.
NewYork-Presbyterian David H. Koch Center is home to a wide range of ambulatory care services, including outpatient surgery, interventional radiology, diagnostic imaging, and infusion services, as well as an Integrative Health Center. Five floors will be transformed into the new NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns, offering best-in-class maternal and neonatal care, beginning in 2020.
Creating a Seamless Patient Experience
In imagining the patient experience at NewYork-Presbyterian David H. Koch Center, our team visualized the patient’s day from beginning to end, and every possible way we could make it as stress-free as possible. Unnecessary waiting and uncertainty, in particular, are two contributors to stress that we have sought to minimize so patients can focus their energy on their health and healing.
In planning patients’ arrival, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for patients — whether traveling from the Bronx or Bay Ridge, by bus, subway, taxi or car — to reach the building on the day of their visit. Public transportation is nearby, and for those arriving by car, the Center features an integrated drop-off area — with easy access from 68th and 69th Streets — and underground valet parking.
To save time, patients can complete their paperwork remotely and securely before their visit, on their mobile phone or online. So when patients arrive on the day of their procedure, check-in is simple and quick: a patient ambassador will greet them by name, help them check in, and offer a personalized “smartband” that provides instant access to personalized information about their visit and step-by-step directions to the room, where their care team will greet them. Or they can visit a check-in kiosk, similar to one at an airport, and proceed directly to their procedure floor.
Each patient’s visit has a clear, planned flow that begins and ends in the same space — a private prep and recovery room that serves as “home base” for them and their companions throughout their visit. Starting and ending the day in the same room provides an important sense of certainty. Dedicated rooms also make it easier for caregivers and clinicians to find family members to provide updates and instructions on follow-up care. Since patients also prep and recover with the same nurse and care team, stationed right outside their room, there is never any confusion about where a patient is going to be or who is taking care of them.
Our multidisciplinary team of specialists, working collaboratively under one roof, will consider each patient holistically whether they are being treated for digestive diseases, cancer or other conditions, or coming to the Center for outpatient surgery, interventional radiology or diagnostic imaging. For patients, the Center will serve as a one-stop destination for individualized, coordinated care from diagnosis to treatment.
Once patients have completed their treatment and had time to recover, the care team will work to make sure patients need not wait any longer than necessary to go home. As soon as their doctor gives the okay to leave, patients can utilize their mobile device to retrieve their car from the valet service. And they can easily access their discharge instructions, review their test results, and even have a video follow-up appointment with their physician from home on their mobile device.
Considering the Needs of Friends and Family
The experience of loved ones accompanying patients was also a central consideration in designing the NYP David H. Koch Center. Visitors receive a smartband to gain entry to the building, and are given a tablet to enjoy customized, streaming entertainment while they wait. That wait will not be a mystery — constant communication, including real-time text message updates, will keep them apprised of the patient’s progress. They can feel comfortable leaving the procedure floors — to spend time in a comfortable, dedicated lounge area or perhaps grab a restaurant-quality meal in the café — without missing key updates. Or they can view this information on a digital smart board in the private recovery area.
Integrative Health
NYP David H. Koch Center is also home to the Integrative Health and Wellbeing program at NewYork-Presbyterian, in collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine, which focuses on preventing disease and promoting physical, psychological and social well-being through holistic health care. The program strives to help patients lead healthier lives by offering effective self-care and self-healing tools they can use every day. The center takes a customized “whole person approach,” drawing from Eastern and Western medicine, to address a patient’s physical health as well as their emotional wellbeing.
Mindfulness-based practices like meditation and breathing techniques as well as yoga and acupuncture complement medical care by promoting relaxation, reducing stress and anxiety, and relieving symptoms associated with disease or its treatment.
The Integrative Health and Wellbeing program’s services is available to NewYork-Presbyterian patients in an effort to treat the whole patient, reduce anxiety and enhance the patient experience. The program’s work extends into the broader community through events like yoga and meditation classes that are open to the public.
Smart Spaces, Smart Technology
Smart technology and smart spaces have been incorporated into the design and function of the building to allow patient visits to be as smooth and pleasant as possible. A unified patient schedule allows patients to go straight from the elevator to their exam or procedure preparation room rather than having to spend time in a large waiting room. Natural light streams through the hallways of the building’s perimeter, as external windows filter light through millions of wooden micro slats sealed between energy-efficient glass.
Instead of centralized nursing stations, nurses are situated right outside patients’ prep/recovery rooms, where they can be easily seen. The building also has no basement treatment areas. Unlike many institutions, radiation oncology services are located on the light-filled 4th floor, thanks to the unique engineering of the building.
Technologies not only enhance the patient experience at NYP David. H Koch Center, they are central to delivering exceptional, cutting-edge care. A prime example is the Center’s MR/PET/Angiography suite, the first of its kind in the world. Combining all of the key imaging technologies used for minimally-invasive procedures, including MRI/PET, fluoroscopy, ultrasound, and rotational CT, it enables clinicians to diagnose, plan, and precisely guide procedures and verify their completeness. If, for example, it is determined that additional therapy is necessary for the treatment of a tumor, further treatment can happen during the same visit. A first-of-its-kind patient table design enables use of all of these technologies without having to move patients from table-to-table or room-to-room.
Notably, NYP David H. Koch Center features three linear accelerators including New York’s first MRI-guided linear accelerator for precision radiation treatment of tumors. This leading-edge technology finds, targets and tracks the position and shape of tumors while radiation is precisely delivered, an exciting advance in cancer treatment.
The Center has 12 operating suites and 11 endoscopic procedure rooms and include an operating room dedicated to breast surgery with mammography and ultrasound equipment.
NYP David H. Koch Center is the first project in New York City to earn certification under the LEED Healthcare rating system, and the first project in New York State to earn LEED Gold under the Healthcare rating system.
NewYork-Presbyterian Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns
The top five-and-a-half floors of NYP David H. Koch Center is home to the NYP Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns, offering compassionate, personalized care to pregnant women, newborn babies and their families.
The 220,000 square-foot unit will feature 75 private rooms and well-baby bassinets, 60 neonatal intensive care bassinets, 16 labor and delivery rooms, five cesarean section operative suites, 20 maternal critical assessment and treatment unit rooms and 15 ultrasound rooms, which will offer state-of-the-art visualization. It is set to be the first facility in New York City to have MRI capabilities and an operating room in its neonatal intensive care unit.