Facilities
The facilities currently used by the program are:
Temple University Hospital was founded in 1892 as the Samaritan Hospital, a 20-bed facility with one doctor on its staff. From its modest beginnings, TUH has come a long way and now serves as a tertiary referral center for the tri-state area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware). This 732-bed hospital is located on a 26-acre urban campus in North Philadelphia. Temple University Hospital has a number of pioneering clinical programs that provide extraordinary opportunities for hands on clinical experience for residents. The volume of patients treated is substantial with over 50,000 outpatients per year and over 23,000 patients admitted annually. Temple's Emergency Department and Level 1 Trauma Center is one of the busiest in Southeastern Pennsylvania with a heliport to provide access for acute cases from the surrounding region.
The nine-story 544-bed Rock Pavilion opened in 1986 and forms the keystone of the medical complex. In addition to the main TUH, the Temple University Health System (TUHS) now consists of several other hospitals, satellite facilities, rehab centers and nursing homes. For several years, TUH has been one of the busiest heart transplant centers in the country. TUH prides itself on its state-of-the-art technology. For example, the Sectra system allows access to patient CT, MRI and routine radiological studies on patient floors. This allows the team to review current and past films immediately as they round. Technology tools include computerized order entry and retrieval of diagnostic results, as well as digital inpatient medical records. Computer terminals have internet access that allow for prompt retrieval of pertinent literature. The availability of all subspecialties is extraordinary with most routine consults answered in two hours and STAT consults within fifteen minutes. Many of the tertiary care patients seen at Temple pose a unique challenge with unusual or far advanced diseases.
Because of Temple's location in the heart of an urban and densely populated section of the City of Philadelphia, Temple has always served an important social mission in Philadelphia, in addition to its medical role.