The Good Shepherd Medical Center has announced plans for a $12.3 million expansion to its surgical spaces.
The expansion will include a separate central utility plant for the hospital’s daily operations. A public groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 2 opposite Good Shepherd’s Children’s Center behind the hospital at the Elm Avenue end of the Good Shepherd campus.
The project will include two new 750-square-foot surgical suites and will also include the initial construction on two more suites which will be finished and outfitted in coming years.
“The (two) new suites are much larger than a standard surgery room,” said Good Shepherd Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer David Hughes. “They are meant for accommodating procedures using our da Vinci® robotics-assisted surgical system.”
The hospital has seen an increase in physician interest in robotics-assisted minimally-invasive surgery for general procedures such as gall bladder removal, as well as gynecologic and urologic surgeries. The overall 11,500-square-foot project will also quadruple the size of the surgical central supply space, which stores and distributes surgical instruments and disposable items, as well as adding 14 day-surgery rooms for procedure preparation and recovery. New staff locker room facilities are also in the project plans.
“We’re very excited,” said Surgical Services Manager Diane Allie. “It’s our patients who will benefit from this expansion. We do over 3,000 surgical procedures every year, and this will make the whole process more efficient.”
A central utility plant will be constructed behind the hospital as part of the project. The plant’s dedicated building will house air conditioning units, air handler, boilers, vacuum pumps, liquid oxygen tanks, and other equipment associated with the hospital’s daily operations. The utility plant will connect to the hospital via an underground trench dug through the parking lot at the northeast end of the campus.
“We planned this project keeping in mind that we’re a busy 24/7 hospital,” said Hughes. “The disruption to parking is the only impact this project will have on our community members and staff.”
The entire project is expected to take between 15 and 18 months to complete, depending on weather and other factors.
