St. Luke's Announces $22.5 Million Surgical Expansion

St. Luke's President and CEO John Strange announced a $22.5 million surgical expansion at a press conference this morning. The new surgical space is being built on Level 4 of St. Luke's existing Campus Building A which was completed in 2012 and located at 1012 East Second Street. "This high-tech facility is the future of St. Luke's and will dramatically improve the way we deliver health care today as well as be adaptable in the future with the always-evolving health care landscape," explained Strange.

Once it is completed in summer 2015, the 36,000 square foot surgical space will be the top in the Northland and one of the best in the country. The surgical expansion design was carefully researched by a St. Luke's team that travelled to some of the newest and most technologically advanced surgical spaces in the country. "This expansion will put us on the cutting edge of delivering health care and will allow us to handle the most complex medical cases," explained Dr. Mark Eginton, St. Luke's vascular surgeon and member of the team. "We will be utilizing state-of-the-art technology to provide exceptional care to patients," said Dr. Eginton.

A variety of specialists will be using the surgical space such as general surgeons, interventional radiologists and cardiologists among others. Procedures in the new surgical space will range from colonoscopies, minimally invasive surgeries such as hysterectomies, endovascular procedures and open surgeries.

Features of the new surgical space will include:

• 42 private patient exam rooms with the opportunity for family to be with the patient before and after surgery
• Bedside registration
• Enclosed heated parking
• 2 cutting-edge hybrid operating rooms
• 4 universal operating rooms
• 1 special procedures room
• 4 endoscopy rooms

The hybrid operating rooms will allow critically ill and severely injured patients to have all services in one place and will reduce the risk of complication. "Our hybrid operating rooms will be spacious enough to fit the technology and medical expertise required for the most complex cases," explained Dr. Eginton. Hybrid operating rooms focus on collaboration through a team approach for comprehensive patient care. For instance, both open surgery and endovascular procedures can be performed on a patient with a surgeon, interventional radiologist and their teams working together to provide medical care.

St. Luke's will continue to provide exceptional care to its patients and people can stay close to home while receiving quality health care. "We know that family and friends play a very important role during a patient's healing process. Simply put, patients want to be with their loved ones when recovering from surgery," said Toni Schultz, St. Luke's director of surgical services. The surgical expansion was carefully planned to allow patients to be close to their loved ones through surgery and recovery.