New Hospital Opens For Business

New Jersey's newest hospital is open for business.

The University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, a $522 million facility, welcomed its first patients on Tuesday morning, culminating a decade of planning and construction. It replaces the
outdated University Medical Center of Princeton.

Roughly 120 people were transferred Tuesday from the old hospital to the new facility which, at 630,000 square feet, is 50 percent bigger than the building it's replacing. All of its 231 patient rooms are single-occupancy, and the campus has its own natural gas power plant that recycles the heat of the exhaust to
generate even more power.

Hospital officials say roughly 1,200 studies were consulted to maximize the therapeutic effects of nearly everything in the building, including lighting and patient room designs.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)