A new Penn Medicine facility in Southwest Philadelphia will sterilize and package surgical equipment for several hospitals in the area, using steam from purified water in stainless steel machines to clean instruments like scissors, clips, and clamps.
Credit: Kylie CooperA new Penn Medicine facility in Southwest Philadelphia will sterilize and package surgical equipment for several hospitals in the area.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System under Penn Medicine designed the $80 million Interventional Support Center, which opened on Monday, to produce as many as 200 surgical cases a day, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. ISC uses steam from purified water in stainless steel machines to clean instruments like scissors, clips, and clamps for robotic arms used during brain surgery.
The center is also nearly dust-free and clean to avoid cross-contamination while repackaging thousands of surgical tools daily.
The nearly 110,000-square-foot facility is the nation’s largest instrument processing and surgical supply preparation facility, and the first of its kind in Pennsylvania, the Inquirer reported. Penn purchased the center located at 3250 S. 76th St. near the Philadelphia International Airport in 2018 for $14.3 million.
ISC will serve the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Hospital, and three outpatient facilities — the Perelman Center in University City, Penn Medicine Radnor, and the Tuttleman Center at the former Graduate Hospital on South Street.
When it opens in the fall, HUP East will also receive sterile surgical equipment from ISC, the Inquirer reported. HUP East is located behind the Penn Museum across 34th street from HUP.
“By moving our processing operations from the traditional hospital setting to an offsite, dedicated facility, we’re able to increase efficiency in a high-quality, cost-effective way — all while keeping up with increasing demand,” Managing Director of ISC Chris Pastore told the Pennsylvania Business Report.
The ISC will also help create space at clinical locations for patient care by bringing equipment sterilization to a different facility.
“The opening of the ISC sets a new standard for sterile instrument processing," Pastore told the Pennsylvania Business Report. "It also marks a new approach from Penn Medicine."
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