Training Rooms

Training within our simulated hospital

Instruction at the STAR Center takes place within the realistic environment of our virtual inpatient and outpatient settings. It includes a nurse's station, fully functioning clinical units, three outpatient training rooms, six conference rooms, an ambulance simulator, an apartment, and a state-of-the-art virtual reality suite.

Main Lab

The Main Lab is the heart of the simulated hospital that opened in 2007 through a generous grant from the Highmark Foundation and donations from the West Penn Hospital Foundation. The nurses’ station and fully equipped patient care bays house sophisticated, lifelike manikins that can be programmed to simulate a variety of health conditions.

• Classroom
• Three simulation bays
• Two simulation rooms with a control room
  • Simulation Room 2 can be made into a simulated operating room.    

Simulation Ambulance

Our Simulation Ambulance is a permanent structure at the STAR Center. You climb up into it just like a real ambulance. It’s equipped with all of the items you would need as an emergency medical service provider.

Critical Care/Trauma Room

These two rooms replicate a critical care unit. It includes the needed equipment and supplies to care for a critically ill patient.

Galaxy Wing

The Galaxy Wing simulates an entire hospital wing and outpatient clinic to reflect the patient/family experience from admission to discharge. It features several patient and exam rooms where we simulate a typical day for physicians, medical students, nurses, or other hospital staff.

• Five inpatient rooms
• Fully functional nurses’ station
• Four outpatient exam rooms
• Two multifunctional rooms with a control room

Voyager Wing / Surgical Suite

This multipurpose, 5,000-square space allows for a variety of simulation activities. It includes:

• Preop/Postop Room
• Operating Room
• Pediatric Learning Lab
  • Allows practitioners to practice skills required to care for a pediatric patient.      
• In our Surgical Suite, we replicate the setting of an actual surgery and the entire surgical experience including surgical scrub station, pre-op, surgery, and post-op.

Labor Suite / Newborn Nursery

Perfect for obstetrics, gynecology to practice procedures on birthing and newborn manikins.

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

In our simulated NICU, team members practice critical sills on our life-like premature and full-term infant simulators.

Simulation Apartment

The simulation apartment includes a living room, kitchen area, bathroom/laundry area, and a bedroom. We host family conversations, community paramedical, and nursing courses in this space.

Ingenuity Lab

This room is located on the third floor and is used to add realism to simulations. For example, the creations of wounds, injuries, (known as moulage) and 3D Printing.

Virtual Reality Suite

The VR Suite is located on the third floor and has highly sophisticated equipment to practice and perfect surgical skills using a GI/ Bronch, Laproscopic and Cardiovascular mentor.