DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - HSHS St. Mary's Hospital is inviting the community to see its new operating room. Upgraded with advanced technology, the hospital's new operating room is designed to improve efficiency and strengthen patient care.
One major change is the size of the operating room. The current room is about 400 square feet; the new space is nearly twice that.
"Every room can be set up for each patient and not specialized for each procedure or specialty. It can be used for any specialty at any time," said Tedi Simer, the director for surgical services.
Among four new operating rooms, the space has an adjacent sterile processing department, where surgical instruments are sterilized before an operation. The multi-million-dollar project creates more room for staff, technology and flexibility during procedures.
"Our new surgical spaces are going to be fully integrated operating rooms, which means that the nurse will be able to control all of the equipment from a touch panel within the room at the desk and not have to go up to the sterile field to turn on equipment," Simer said.
The upgrade also includes a new cutting-edge surgical system called the DaVinci, which helps perform minimally invasive surgeries. Hospital CEO Timothy Leyman said the goal is to continue elevating medicine with technology.
"We have the potential to do anything. And that as we continue to grow our services, we look forward to [offering] more services in the future and oftentimes services that we don't already have at this time," Leyman said.
"Everybody is going to need surgery at some point. Being able to provide that surgery in an environment where we can get people in, take care of them and send them home, that's our goal," Leyman continued.
The community is open to tour the new operating room from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 11, on the second floor of the hospital, in the surgery family lounge.
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