On Wednesday, November 2, Jefferson Health officially announced the name of its new facility that will open in 2024 on the corner of 11th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia.

It will be called The Honickman Center, after the institution received a $50 million gift from Lynne and Harold Honickman, along with their children Marjorie and Jeffrey Honickman, and Shirley and Richard Hahn. 

“Today’s an important day for Jefferson. It is also a proud day of giving back for my family, but most importantly, it is a day of looking forward for Philadelphia,” said Jeffrey Honickman. 

He highlighted that for the Honickman family, it was always believed that there was a collective responsibility to create strong communities and improve the world around them. 

“That lesson is a perfect formula with Jefferson’s mission, which is to help those who are in need, to care for our fellow man, and to improve lives,” Honickman added. 

The new facility will add to Jefferson’s legacy of improving healthcare delivery to patients by blending both physical and virtual care. 

Patricia Wellenbach, board chair for Jefferson, shared that there are moments within an organization's history that changes its trajectory forever, and this was one of them.

She then proceeded to highlight how The Honickman Center will do so, saying it “will be a crown jewel for Philadelphia.” 

“Core to the vision for The Honickman Center is a design that will assure patients, caregivers and clinical teams have a more accessible and personalized experience. That experience will integrate the excellence of clinical care that Jefferson is nationally recognized for, with a level of connection and humanity that has always defined us as an institution,” said Wellenbach.

In a city that continues to struggle with inequities and disparities for marginalized families and communities, The Honickman Center will help accelerate Jefferson’s commitment to create and implement sustainable solutions towards those challenges and improve outcomes. 

During his remarks, there was one concept that Jefferson CEO Joseph Caccione, MD, FACC, repeated several times — transformation.

“As a leader, you want to leave an organization stronger than you found it, and I’ve only been in my role a couple of months here, and I already know that this facility is going to be a difference maker for us,” he said. 

“The Honickman Center will transform the patient experience, will transform the provider experience, the ability for physicians to communicate, and integrate care paths, and care delivery is going to be unmatched,” added Cacchione. 

When he thinks about the eventual opening of the new center, he thinks about the mom who is fighting cancer or the dad with multiple health conditions. The new facility will have imaging testing, medical oncology, and a strong team who will provide care in a seamless manner.  

This was a very important sentiment, shared by Gregory C. Kane, MD, The Jane and Leonard Korman Professor of Pulmonary Medicine Chair at the Department of Medicine.

As a caregiver, he often thinks about the roughly 14,000 steps a nurse may take at a typical clinical facility. Kane highlighted that the design of this new building will allow nurses to take roughly 9,000 steps.

“That will be an additional hour that he or she can spend with our patients and their families, interacting to coordinate and deliver the care that is so important and so essential to our success,” said Dr. Kane. “That's the kind of small, yet huge impact that this building is going to make.”

The new Honickman Center is a 19-story, 462,000 square foot facility that will feature more than 300 exam rooms, 58 infusion chairs, 10 operating rooms, six endoscopy rooms, imaging and lab services, and three levels of underground parking. 

Construction for the facility is expected to produce approximately $616 million in economic impact in Philadelphia, and support 3,390 jobs over its four-year period of construction, according to Jefferson.