Morris Hospital completes $13.2 million perioperative services renovation

Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers has completed a 13.2 million renovation of its perioperative services on the hospital’s main campus, which is now a state-of-the-art facility for surgery, endoscopy and minor procedures.

The renovations include three new operating rooms built for modern technology, new sterile processing facilities where surgical instruments are cleaned, sterilized and transported to the operating rooms, two new endoscopy rooms for GI and bronchoscopy procedures, a dedicated room for minor procedures, five same-day surgery rooms and a number of patient and family focused amenities.

“Renovations are always extremely complex, especially in hospitals because we have to wait for one area to get completed and occupied in order to create the vacant space that will get renovated next,” President & CEO Tom Dohm said. “That was precisely the case with our perioperative renovations that were completed in two phases over a period of two years. It was like piecing together a complex puzzle.”

Along with the enhancements to the perioperative services clinical space, the latest round of renovations at Morris Hospital resulted in a new dedicated surgical waiting room for family members accompanying patients on the day of surgery. In the new surgical waiting room, a specially assigned volunteer and patient tracker board are designed to help keep loved ones informed as the patient progresses from the same day surgery area to the operating room, and then to recovery. And when the surgery or procedure is over, new private consult rooms connected to the surgical waiting room give family members a private place to speak with the physician.

Another enhanced amenity is a dedicated exit on the west side of the hospital campus, offering greater privacy for surgical patients as they leave the hospital.

“Our perioperative renovations have been years in the making,” Dohm said. “We are thrilled to bring the project to completion and to be providing our community with the best surgical facilities available anywhere.”

The completion of the perioperative services renovations brings the $64 million master facility plan that was announced in 2018 to a close. Since 2020, Morris Hospital has opened a comprehensive medical facility in Diamond-Coal City and completed a major modernization on the hospital main campus that resulted in a new emergency department, women’s imaging center, infusion therapy center, lab collection area, cardiac diagnostic and imaging services departments, and interventional prep/recovery area adjacent to the cath lab.

“When we reflect back on five years ago, there’s just no comparison to what the first floor of the hospital looks like today,” Dohm said. “In addition to keeping up with advancements in the delivery of health care by modernizing our patient care areas on first floor, we have successfully enhanced the hospital infrastructure, our disaster response capabilities, privacy and wayfinding for our patients, and functionality and efficiencies for our staff. It’s all part of our ongoing commitment to providing our community with state-of-the-art health care facilities that are close to home.”

Serving patients from 29 locations, Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers includes the 89-bed Morris Hospital, as well as physician offices in Braidwood, Channahon, Diamond-Coal City, Dwight, Gardner, Marseilles, Mazon, Minooka, Morris, Newark, Ottawa and Seneca. Through the services of more than 1,900 health care professionals, physicians and volunteers, Morris Hospital provides lifesaving cardiac intervention with angioplasty and stents, a radiation therapy center for cancer patients, Mako robotic-arm assisted surgery for orthopedics, a state-of-the-art intensive care unit, integrated behavioral health in the primary care setting, and an advanced level of emergency care around the clock. Morris Hospital is a Level II trauma center, Level II perinatal care provider and primary stroke center. The hospital is known for its compassionate and personalized approach to healthcare.