Skaggs renovates for open-heart surgery

A $4.5 million renovation project at Skaggs Community Health Center in Branson will allow the hospital to provide a wide range of adult cardiac surgery services, according to a press release from Skaggs.

Slated for completion by May 2002, the 15,000-square-foot project that began in March 2000 is expanding and modernizing the hospital's inpatient surgical services. The renovation includes:

Three pre-operative holding rooms;

Four surgical suites (one dedicated to heart surgery with a backup room for emergencies);

Seven recovery room beds, in-cluding one in an isolation room;

An anesthesia workroom and lounge;

A new sterile processing department and sterile supply storage;

A staff lounge that will also be an education classroom; and

A new office for the nursing director.

"The renovation was broken down into four phases," said Mike Epley, director of plant operations for Skaggs, in the release. "In about five weeks, we'll begin with phase four, which is the largest and most significant area of construction. This is when we actually begin construction of the heart surgery rooms."

Skaggs now has three inpatient surgery suites for general surgical procedures and one surgery suite for urologic procedures.

After the renovation is complete, one suite will be dedicated to open-heart surgery procedures; one will be for orthopedic surgery; and two will be used for general surgery, with one of the two outfitted as a back-up suite for heart surgery.

In addition to the inpatient surgery suites, Skaggs has three outpatient surgery suites at the Skaggs Out-patient Center.

"We aren't increasing the number of suites, but we are expanding their size to accommodate the heart surgery," Epley said. "There are a lot of special needs, such as a sub-sterile space connected to the surgery suite to store equipment, and improved ventilation and air systems. The heart suites require lower than normal temperatures; open-heart surgery adds significant cooling loads to our air-conditioning systems."

The surgery suite renovation re-quires completely new electrical wiring, lighting, walls, floors, ceilings, doors and access corridors.

"This project is moving along real well," said George Shelton, director of surgical services at Skaggs. "A few weeks ago, the sterile processing department was put into use, doubling our capacity for processing instruments."