OSF HealthCare and the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria (UICOMP) have officially begun work on their latest collaborative effort, the Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center on the campus of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held Friday, September 16, 2011. The new building will be situated adjacent to the North Parking Deck across from the entrance to the new Children’s Hospital of Illinois and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center building that opened in 2010.
The Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center will utilize the latest innovations in simulation education to train physicians and medical professionals from across the region. It features seven distinct simulation areas: a virtual ICU; a virtual operating room and trauma lab; a virtual patient care unit, including six actual size rooms; a virtual reality lab; an anatomical skills lab; a regional transport center, complete with an ambulance and apartment-like set up for simulating rescues; and an innovation lab.
“Simulation is a learning tool that allows health professionals to have experiences which simulate or mimic a real event,” explained Sara Rusch, M.D., UICOMP Regional Dean. “For instance, when a child stops breathing, you want the healthcare team to work together flawlessly during the resuscitation. We can simulate that event so realistically that the learners feel and act like it is real. Then we analyze our video recordings, identify processes or actions that can be improved, and then run the simulation again until we deliver the best possible care. This is the mission of the Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center, to improve outcomes and lower healthcare costs through innovative simulation training of medical professionals.”
“A simulation facility of this caliber has been a dream of mine for some time,” said Keith Steffen, President and CEO, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center. “There are fewer than 10 simulation centers of this level in the country. This world-class facility will have people looking to Peoria for their medical training needs, not just physicians, but nurses and other clinicians, as well as emergency services personnel and other first responders. Not only is it good for our patients, but also for the central Illinois economy both during construction and after it opens.”
The cutting-edge, $50 million facility is funded, in part, by a $25 million gift from Jump Trading, a Chicago-based proprietary trading firm. The simulation center will encompass the lower two floors of the six-story, 157,000 square foot building. It is slated to open in the spring of 2013. The remainder of the building will be used for still undetermined future needs for OSF Saint Francis Medical Center.