Frequently Raised Topics

In 2013, when then Governor Christie sunset the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, it split the operations of the medical education and faculty and the hospital. Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, under the leadership of Chancellor Strom, assumed oversight of the medical, dental, public health and nursing schools on the Newark Campus. At the same time, University Hospital became a freestanding institution with its own Board of Directors. Because University Hospital is an academic medical center and the clinical faculty are Rutgers employees, the two entities are interdependent on one another. What benefits the hospital also benefits the faculty and the students.

The Hospital remains the principal teaching hospital for the Newark-based medical and dental schools. Therefore, Rutgers physicians, specialists, and students treat patients at University Hospital every day. Continuing this relationship helps preserve both the Hospital’s and Rutgers’ shared community-focused and academic missions.

Rutgers University also has provided significant support for the strategic planning of our hospital campus. As the primary teaching hospital of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and as an owner and operator of multiple buildings on the shared Newark campus, the success of University Hospital and NJMS are inextricably linked. Rutgers will remain a critical and necessary partner as University Hospital moves forward with construction.

After years of planning and community engagement – including listening sessions that informed project direction and highlighted greatest needs in the community – and with the support and guidance of its Board of Directors, University Hospital has begun its phased nine-year, $1.8 billion master campus plan – a series of sequential major capital projects designed to better meet existing needs. To move forward with the long-term development plan, the master campus plan proposed an enabling phase which includes demolition of the temporary administrative buildings, a parking garage, and the Doctor’s Office Center (“DOC”). This will allow for the space necessary to construct state-of-the-art replacement buildings, a new clinical tower addition, and, as the final phase, extensive renovations and infrastructure upgrades to the existing main hospital building.

To build the new clinical tower, Parking Deck P3 and the DOC, both of which are currently owned and operated by Rutgers University, must first be demolished. To do this, the functions in these buildings will be relocated to two new buildings; the new Administrative Building and Parking Deck (ADMB) will replace the current P3 deck and the Medical Office Building (MOB) will replace the current DOC. These two new facilities will be constructed on a portion of the existing Administration Complex site (ADMC), which holds a series of “temporary” structures originally built in the 1970s.  The impacted ADMC buildings have now been vacated. Demolition and subsequent construction of the ADMB are underway begin Construction of the MOB will follow in 2026.

Importantly, this project requires close collaboration with Rutgers University. Rutgers owns and operates several buildings on campus, including the current parking structures, the current Doctor’s Office Center, Cancer Center, Medical School buildings, and the majority of the temporary structures slotted for demolition (the buildings shaded gray and light blue in the image below). University Hospital owns the main clinical tower and the Ambulatory Care Center (the buildings colored in dark blue below) and will be retaining ownership of both during this process. University Hospital does not currently own or operate any of the parking structures on the Newark campus.

The Medical Office Building (MOB), which will replace the Rutgers-owned Doctor’s Office Building (DOC), is anticipated to be a University Hospital-led partnership with a private developer. This type of collaborative arrangement between UH and a developer will expedite design and construction and leverage the developer’s expertise in the building of an innovative and efficient ambulatory medical office facility.

University Hospital has a long-standing commitment to our community and has several forums in which we engage with the community. UH community events and CEO speaking engagements have been hosted throughout the city and in each of the Wards to ensure that citizens have the opportunity to hear updates and ask questions about the progress of the effort.

We also urge members of the community that are able to attend our Board of Directors and Community Oversight Board meetings, where we share updates regarding construction projects, the financials of the Hospital, and other relevant information.  It is also a forum for your voice to be heard, as there is an opportunity for public comment in both meetings.

This webpage and written answers to your questions is in direct response to the valid concerns raised at board meetings that people cannot attend every public meeting, and that questions cannot always be answered in real-time when people are available to hear them. This information is here to respond to questions and comments that have come up in our public meetings. We look forward to continuing to hear from you, and we will continue to update this information with answers to new questions and as new information arises.

Please also follow us on our social media platforms for updates regarding upcoming events. 

University Hospital’s Master Plan work is another opportunity to involve our local community.  We remain focused on local vendor engagement throughout the planning and construction of these new facilities. We are committed to ensuring information about these projects is continually shared with vendors and subcontractors. For example, a well- attended UH Master Plan Information Session for Local and Diverse Subcontractors and Vendors was held in Newark in December 2024. Additional events like this will be hosted by the selected developer and their team for the MOB in the Fall of 2025.

While we continue to work on expansion of our campus, which is a multi-year project to advance and improve access to care, we are also working to bring more immediate improvements to Newark residents. We are actively undergoing critical renovations on our existing campus, including the expansion and renovation of our emergency department, which will result in a much-needed 30% increase in our current capacity and significant modifications that will provide patients with more privacy. This means shorter wait times for patients requiring emergent care.

We are simultaneously assessing how we can best expand our ambulatory/outpatient care to meet the most critical needs of the community. We know that wait times for specialists and clinic visits are long. We also know that University Hospital hosts some of the most talented and expert medical professionals in the nation, and that we need to do everything we can to improve your access to them.

Our commitment to the local community extends well beyond the boundaries of this campus.  We are actively working to expand primary care and in Newark.  For example, in July of 2024, we opened what we hope is the first of many community health centers that will provide individuals with more immediate care.  This Community Health and Wellness Center, in Newark’s West Ward Fairmount neighborhood, is designed to address social determinants of health and increase access to community-based, culturally-competent services for people with limited access to high-quality health care.

In 2024 alone, our team hosted over 100 events that provided lifesaving screenings to thousands of people where they live, work, study, and worship.  This included dozens of events featuring our mobile mammography van, which has helped to reduce barriers to cancer screenings in our region. With the goal of screenings thousands of women for years to come, we are undertaking significant enhancements to our mobile mammography services and anticipate resuming mobile screenings in the Fall of 2025.

Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and New Jersey Medical School Leadership have reported that there we should not expect reduction of physician services and medical student training at UH to be reduced. It is important to note that the integration of the medical schools will also have no impact on ownership of University Hospital facilities.  The Hospital currently owns two buildings on campus – the University Hospital clinical tower and the Ambulatory Care Center – which will remain under its ownership.

Rutgers Health has provided additional information on this topic, available here.  University Hospital will continue to advocate for transparency and collaboration with the Rutgers team as this process moves forward.