Jefferson Regional to Open Six New Operating Rooms
Built with the Future In Mind
“The surgical services offered at Jefferson Regional are equal to those offered (in hospitals) downtown with as good – if not better – results,”
- Chong Park, MD
More than 10,000 surgeries are performed annually at Jefferson Regional Medical Center from basic surgical procedures done on an outpatient basis to the most complex advanced cardiac cases and other surgeries that require an inpatient stay. Patients trust their important medical decisions to the highly skilled and compassionate group of surgeons at Jefferson Regional. As more patients realize the quality of care and convenience of Jefferson Regional Medical Center for their surgical needs, hospital leaders have recognized the importance of adding more operating room capacity for surgeons, support staff and the most advanced surgical equipment. As a result, a $17.5 million construction and renovation project now in the final stages of completion will bring expanded and modernized surgical facilities to Jefferson Regional. The two-year project, scheduled for occupancy in February, will add six new operating rooms and renovate the existing surgical suite. The OR expansion features a two-story addition to the hospital in Jefferson Hills that will bring the total number of operating and procedural rooms to 20. Richard Collins Jr., MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer at Jefferson Regional, said the operating rooms expansion will enhance the capabilities of surgeons, such as orthopedic surgeons who will be able to work more efficiently using the most modern navigational equipment and patient-specific instruments for total knee replacement procedures.
“The construction and growth of these new surgical suites will allow us to continue our quest to provide the latest and greatest surgical care possible for the patients in our area.”
-- Charles Cline, MD
The expanded operating rooms also will enhance new surgical services being provided at Jefferson Regional, including bariatric surgery through HOPE Bariatrics, and dedicated women’s surgeries by the gynecologists of Dr. Anthony Gentile and Associates. Dr. Gentile recently opened a third office location on the Jefferson Regional campus in addition to offices in Munhall and Bethel Park. He added three experienced gynecologists to his practice: Lawrence Glad, MD; John Sunyecz, MD, and Christine Wilson, MD, who will perform women’s surgeries in the renovated operating rooms. A fourth gynecologist, Thomas Cunningham, MD, will join the practice in January. In the area of women’s surgeries, Dr. Gentile said the new operating rooms will facilitate less-invasive laparoscopic surgery for hysterectomy patients, which results in less pain and discomfort, less risk of infection and quicker return to normal activities than the traditional surgical approach.“ Jefferson Regional’s new state-of-the art surgical suites will allow these procedures to be completed in an excellent setting where the main goal is to achieve the best outcome possible for all our patients,” Dr. Gentile said. Chong Park, MD, chairperson, department of surgery, and a cardiothoracic surgeon at The Heart Institute at Jefferson Regional Medical Center, said the surgical team at the 373-bed acute-care hospital in Jefferson Hills is comprised of an exemplary group of medical professionals whose primary focus is providing exceptional patient care.
“The surgical services offered at Jefferson Regional are equal to those offered (in hospitals) downtown with as good – if not better – results,” Dr. Park said. Jefferson Regional’s surgeons are capable of performing the same surgical procedures with the exception of a few super-specialties such as transplants, he noted, and they demonstrate genuine compassion for their patients.” People who work at Jefferson Regional are friendly. They live in your neighborhoods; they really care about their patients. You are not just a number to your medical team. We have a state-of-the-art facility and state-of-the-art services. Even more importantly, we are who you are; we are your community,” said Dr. Park. He explained that the new operating rooms have been designed for future growth, including capability for intra-operative video conferencing that will be used to send images to another surgeon for a second opinion or consultation. New video imaging systems will be available in all of the new rooms for all surgical specialties. “We’ve built the rooms with the future in mind,” he said. As surgical services at Jefferson Regional continues to grow, Michael Evans, who joined the administrative team in September as vice president of surgical program development, said the new OR suite “will greatly enhance our ability to perform the latest techniques, especially in the areas of laparoscopic, vascular and cardio- thoracic surgery.”