Patients and Providers Benefit From Convenience of Honickman Center

At the Honickman Center, convenience and technology will converge to provide improved care for patients and superior conditions for healthcare providers, says Mary Beth Edger, DNP, MSN, MHA, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing officer, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals.

Edger says the state-of-the-art Honickman Center will offer the utmost convenience for patients and their families, starting with getting there—it’s easily accessible by train and bus, and offers a 300-space garage for those who choose to drive—all the way through the services that will be offered.

“It’s a one-stop shop for many services,” says Edger, who oversees a variety of functions, including planning, organizing, and directing the overall operations of nursing/patient care services across three campuses (Center City, Jefferson Hospital for Neurosciences, and Jefferson Methodist Hospital). 

 “It also gives our (nursing) staff the ability to collaborate and partner with our patients and the interprofessional team all under one roof,” she says. At the moment, the nursing staff and other members of the interprofessional care teams are located in various places in ambulatory settings throughout the Jefferson campus.

“If a patient needs imaging—a film or X-ray, or a lab test—it’ll be right in the same building, rather than having to walk a block or two,” she says. “It will also allow many specialty services to come together in one building and help the healthcare providers do their jobs more efficiently—something that will in turn benefit the patient.”

For Edger, one of the most exciting amenities of the building is its “smart” technology.

“For example, a patient can sit in a chair and their weight will automatically be registered and logged into EPIC (the electronic medical record program used by Jefferson),” she says. “This type of high-tech feature and others offer better efficiency and allow nursing staff and other members of the team to spend more time with patients.”

The Honickman Center will also benefit the next generation of nurses, especially the student nurses at the Jefferson College of Nursing.

“The students will be able to rotate through the building for training. They will learn what the role of the ambulatory nurse is, and the importance of collaboration and partnership with the interprofessional team, as well as with the patients and their care providers.”

In the past, the focus of healthcare was on the inpatient hospital; today’s nurses learn that the goal of modern healthcare is keeping the patient out of the hospital and treating them in their community or their home, she explains.

Those technological advances are not just for learning, but also expand into improved care.

“While the pandemic was stressful, it provided an opportunity for learning. We learned that there are different ways of providing care and providing education with the use of technology,” she says, citing the increased use of telemedicine to treat patients and online methods for delivering training to healthcare professionals.

Edger says the Honickman Center is a benefit to the community and the patients Jefferson serves, and she is grateful for those who have supported it.

“We couldn’t have this building without philanthropy, and we thank our donors so much for what they’ve done,” she says, adding that continued funding is essential. “Ongoing philanthropy is necessary to establish additional patient care services and to help fund additional projects as well as stay on top of the latest technologies and healthcare trends.”