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Jefferson has a new 19-story building in Center City. Here is what to know about it.

The center will open for patients on April 15.

Jefferson celebrated the Honickman Center on the 1100 block of Chestnut Street on Wednesday with tours of the new building.
Jefferson celebrated the Honickman Center on the 1100 block of Chestnut Street on Wednesday with tours of the new building.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Jefferson Health has a new building on the corner of Chestnut and 11th Streets in Center City.

Patients will not start receiving care in the 19-story Honickman Center until mid-April, but Jefferson held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday to tout its infrastructure investment.

“The Honickman Center will offer convenient and centralized access to a broad range of signature medical specialties,” Jefferson CEO Joseph Cacchione said in a statement.

» READ MORE: Jefferson Health CEO reflects on the system’s rapid growth as it celebrates a bicentennial

Here is what you need to know about the center:

What services will be available at the Honickman Center?

The building will serve as Jefferson’s primary outpatient center, offering access to many of the nonprofit health system’s existing outpatient services and allowing some to expand.

The center features more than 300 exam rooms and 10 operating rooms for surgeries that do not require hospitalizations, an increase from the four operating rooms at Jefferson’s current outpatient center at 1100 Walnut St.

The center eventually will house:

  1. The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center

  2. Vickie and Jack Farber Institute of Neuroscience

  3. Nicoletti Kidney Transplant Institute

  4. Jane and Leonard Korman Respiratory Institute

  5. Gastroenterology, general surgery, cardiology, hematology, neurology, oncology, otolaryngology, and rheumatology specialty clinics.

The building will also include a retail pharmacy, an on-site lab, and radiology services.

When will the Honickman Center open to patients?

April 15.

The services will open at the center over time in a phased approach. The services that will open first include cardiovascular care, neurology and neurosurgery, rheumatology, and infectious disease.

How much did the Honickman Center cost?

$762 million.

That’s Jefferson’s official price tag, but it’s unclear exactly what that includes. As of Dec. 31, the system had spent $478 million on the center’s construction, according to its financial reports.

The project received funding from more than 2,500 donors, Cacchione said. The Honickmans of Philadelphia donated $50 million to the facility, now named for the family. The donation is among the largest Jefferson has received.

“Making the patient’s experience a lot easier is something we thought was quite important,” Harold Honickman, chairman of the Honickman Group of soft-drink bottling and distribution companies, told The Inquirer in 2022.

» READ MORE: Jefferson receives a $50M gift to help pay for its 19-story health-care building going up in Center City

What are some of the new features of the Honickman Center?

Pet-friendly areas, sensory-sensitive furniture, and a lot of natural light.

The Honickman building is outfitted with features intended to improve the patient experience.

For example, industrial design students from Thomas Jefferson University created chairs for people who are neurodivergent, such as autistic patients. For privacy, the chairs have raised barriers around them, similar to a cubicle. They are painted in soothing pastel colors.

And natural light fills the recovery area for patients coming out of surgery.

The sunlit area may help elderly patients who come out of surgery to avoid delirium, a confused condition that can lead to longer hospital stays and worse outcomes. One way to reduce the risk of delirium is to help orient the patient as anesthesia wears off, said Catriona Harrop, who will oversee the health care provided in the new building.

“It benefits the patients and it benefits the providers,” she said.

Is there parking?

Yes.

The center includes 300 on-site valet parking spaces.

Reporter Harold Brubaker contributed to this article.