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2008 Best Health Care AV Project

It's happening more and more: Hospitals and universities using AV to improve the practice of medicine as well as the training. But because health care AV applications are still comparatively new, building a complex, $2.5 million system like the one at Thomas Jefferson University's Dorrance Hamilton Building required extensive coordination among the stakeholders.

2008 Best Health Care AV Project

It’s happening more and more: Hospitals and universities using AV to improve the practice of medicine as well as the training. But because health care AV applications are still comparatively new, building a complex, $2.5 million system like the one at Thomas Jefferson University’s Dorrance Hamilton Building required extensive coordination among the stakeholders.

AV control rooms afford video monitoring for each of the camera’s in the buildings exam rooms.

Credit: Raber Photography

IT’S HAPPENING MORE AND MORE: HOSPITALS AND universities using AV to improve the practice of medicine as well as the training. But because health care AV applications are still comparatively new, building a complex, $2.5 million system like the one at Thomas Jefferson University’s Dorrance Hamilton Building required extensive coordination among the stakeholders.

“A key contributor was the investment in time to meet with various user groups to understand their needs and vision of how they planned to use the AV systems,” says Pejman Makarechi, director of medical media services at Thomas Jefferson. “As a result, we were able to modify the designs to meet the needs of the faculty.”

Today, the six-story, 136,000-square-foot Hamilton Building includes a fully integrated auditorium with support for videoconferecing, a slew of AV-enabled meeting and classrooms, plus three floors of clinical skills rooms with virtual diagnostic and surgical capabilities.

The skills center represents the most influential use of AV. Integrator AVSG of Broomall, Pa., installed Panasonic PTZ dome cameras and Sound Control gooseneck ceiling microphones, among other products, throughout the exam rooms and other simulation areas. Most also include Extron 6×1 AV switchers and 4-inch AMX color touch panels with integrated NetLinx controllers to manage each room’s systems.

A master control room on the building’s third floor, with eight Marshall V-R44P quad 4-inch monitor panels and two other Marshall dual 8-inch monitors, allow video monitoring of rooms on two floors (a second, similar control room sits one floor up). And many of the skills rooms allow centralized, server-based recording for ongoing educational purposes.

“We haven’t come across any situations yet where we are not able to provide the services needed by the faculty,” says Makarechi.

AV INTEGRATOR

AVSG, Broomall, Pa.

AV CONSULTANT

RJC Designs, Glen Burnie, Md.

ARCHITECT

Burt Hill, Philadelphia

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