VAMED hands over new emergency center to Charité

After just two years of construction work, this Friday VAMED handed over the new emergency center on the Campus Mitte to Charité. Charité celebrated the structural completion of the building with around 150 internal and external guests. Among them there were the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, as well as the Senator for Science and chairwoman of Charité’s board, Sandra Scheeres. Once the medical equipment of the building has been installed, clinical operations can be started in late October. The Governing Mayor commented on the success of the project: “With Charité’s Emergency Center Mitte, Charité is fit for the future and absolutely able to live up to its importance for the population of the growing city. Furthermore, the completion of the construction work in time and on budget is a positive example of successful and punctual building in Berlin.” Since his time as Senator for Urban Development, Michael Müller has been familiar with the construction project.

Prof. Dr. Karl Max Einhäupl, CEO of Charité, emphasized: “The timetable for the extensive construction project was extremely tight, and thus we are proud and relieved to be able now to offer our patients our usual top-notch medicine in this highly modern and attractive environment.” He added: “On this day, our thanks go to Matthias Scheller as well, who has supported the project in the initial phase as the then director of the hospital center.” In addition, Prof. Einhäupl thanked the construction manager of Charité, Christian Kilz, for the outstanding work of the internal construction division.

Sandra Scheeres, Senator and chairwoman of Charité’s supervisory board, likewise sees the structural completion of the new building as a climax before the finishing of the entire construction: “The supervisory board has supported the construction project for many years closely and trustfully.” She added: “Charité’s Emergency Center Mitte also means improvement of the employees’ working environment, for example in the care of critically ill patients.” In addition, it was Sandra Scheeres’s desire to thank the employees of Charité for their perseverance during the construction period.

On behalf of the departments to move in, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Frei, Medical Director of Charité, expressed his pleasure with the cutting-edge technology in Charité’s Emergency Center Mitte – Rudolf-Nissen-Haus, from which patients and staff alike benefit. In addition, Prof. Frei gave a brief overview of the eventful life of the surgeon Rudolf Nissen (1896–1981): “We are particularly proud to name this house in honor of Rudolf Nissen. The renowned surgeon came to Charité in 1927 and had to leave Germany in 1933 because of his Jewish background. He emigrated first to Turkey, then to the USA. After the war, from 1952 to 1967 he was Professor of Surgery at the University of Basel.”

The building is a five-story cube with a central atrium, housing three major units: the operating area with 15 ultra-modern operating rooms, two of them designed as hybrid ORs with integrated imaging; the ICU with 71 patient beds; and the new Central Emergency Room, which will be accessible from the driveway Philippstraße. On the top story proper, the recovery room and the monitoring unit of the central operating area are lit by skylights. The operating rooms are arranged so that they are illuminated by indirect sunlight. Thereby the amenity value for patients as for staff in the central operating area is substantially improved.

The new building, which has a floor space of 7,785 square meters (c. 84,000 sq.ft.), is funded as part of the Masterplan Charité. The construction costs of around € 70 mio. are part of the total budget for the multi-story accommodation complex totaling € 202.5 mio. For the implementation of the project, after a Europe-wide call for tenders, in January 2014 the consortium of Ed. Züblin AG and VAMED Germany was awarded the contract and commissioned as general contractor. Züblin is among the leading German construction companies, and VAMED is an internationally renowned company for the construction and operation of hospitals and other healthcare facilities.