10 Facts about The Clifton Center for Medical Breakthroughs

The Clifton Center for Medical Breakthroughs serves as a blueprint for the ‘hospital of the future’, with a focus on patient experience and comfort, providing the most cutting-edge medical care in the world. Since opening its doors in October 2021, its medical teams have cared for tens of thousands of patients within a building that serves as a new landmark for the university’s medical campus.

Learn more about one of the practice’s latest healthcare projects in the USA, from how prefabrication helped accelerate the construction process to its helipad that has helped transfer more than 4,000 critically ill patients to date.

1. The Clifton Center for Medical Breakthroughs is the largest certified project in the United States to achieve a Gold LEED Healthcare rating.

2. The building contains 504 patient rooms and 47 operating theatres, which are designed to receive natural light. On average, there are 129 patient beds and 8 operating rooms in a US hospital.

Operating room at The Clifton Center for Medical Breakthroughs. © Dan Schwalm / 2021 PennFIRST

The 504 inpatient rooms are conversion-ready, with space and infrastructure capable of handling any level of acuity from medical-surgical to intensive care. © Dan Schwalm / 2021 PennFIRST

3. To speed up construction and improve quality, much of the building, including patient rooms, bathrooms and mechanical systems, was prefabricated off-site - a first for Philadelphia.

4. Conservation initiatives included recycling materials that were collected after the demolition of Penn Tower, which formerly stood on the new hospital’s site, including 291 tons of scrap steel and 17,000 tons of concrete.

5. More than 1,720 patients have received lifesaving organ transplants at the hospital.

6. A helipad atop the building ensures speedy care for the more than 4,000 critically ill patients transferred annually.

The Clifton Center for Medical Breakthroughs on the extensive Penn Medicine campus in West Philadelphia. © Nigel Young / Foster + Partners

7. Penn Medicine’s Transfer Center receives transfers from hospitals across the world – as far away as Antarctica.

8. Site landscaping was carefully designed to beautify the grounds as well as reduce irrigation needs by 64% through a selection of native and drought-tolerant species.

The design of the building is sustainable, efficient, uplifting and sensitive to its surroundings. © Nigel Young / Foster + Partners

9. The building’s patient care floors were designed with a unique, flexible planning system that enables the 72-bed floors to be broken down into smaller unit sizes that respond to changing needs and patient demands. Acuity adaptable rooms allow patients to stay in the same place while services move to them.

10. Healthy materials were key to the building’s design process, new construction and interior finishes were screened for toxic ingredients and low or no volatile organic compounds emissions.