Morris Hospital invites community to see new surgical suites

MORRIS – The community will have an opportunity to tour Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers’ new, state-of-the-art Surgical Services Suite during an open house scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 26, from 1-3 p.m. at Morris Hospital, 150 W. High St. Guests should enter through the hospital’s main entrance off High Street.

On the tour, community members will see Morris Hospital’s new operating rooms, the new ambulatory surgery rooms where the outpatient start and end their surgical visit, and the new sterile processing area where surgical instruments are cleaned, sterilized, and transported to the operating rooms.

“We recently notified the Illinois Department of Public Health that we are ready for the inspection that is required before we can begin using our newly constructed surgical area for patient services,” explains Tom Dohm, President & CEO of Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers. “In the meantime, now is the perfect opportunity for community members to come and see this very impressive area of our hospital that is typically reserved for patients who are having surgery.”

Along with three new replacement operating rooms that were built for today’s modern technology, the $13.2 million renovation project is resulting in five additional private ambulatory surgery rooms, new sterile processing facilities, and sterile core hallway, a holding area for inpatients who are having surgery, improved storage for surgery and anesthesia equipment, and new locker rooms, workspace and break room for staff.

While outpatients having surgery will continue to enter the building through the main lobby and check in at the registration desk, once the new surgical services area opens, surgery patients will leave the hospital through a dedicated exit on the west side of the building, offering greater privacy for surgical patients when leaving the hospital.

The cost of the project also includes new equipment along with a dedicated heating, ventilation, and cooling system for the surgical area of the hospital.

The next phase of renovations will involve turning the current operating rooms into new procedure rooms for gastrointestinal (GI), bronchoscopy, and other procedures involving anesthesia. The second phase will also result in dedicated surgical consult rooms and a new surgical waiting room, giving support persons who accompany surgical patients a dedicated area to wait while their loved one is in surgery. Renovations to the Post Anesthesia Care Unit and Ambulatory Surgery department are expected to take place in a later phase of construction.

Dohm said that the upgrade to the surgical area of the hospital has been part of the hospital’s main campus modernization plans for some time but had to occur in sequence.

“Three years ago at this time we were celebrating the opening of our new emergency department, infusion therapy center, women’s imaging center, outpatient laboratory, and main lobby,” he said. “Since then, we completed renovations to our cardio-diagnostics and imaging departments, along with the interventional prep/recovery area adjacent to the cath lab. The changes that we have been making over the past few years have created the space needed to bring state-of-the-art surgical facilities to our community.”

“We hope everyone will take the opportunity to come and see for themselves during our surgical services open house on Feb. 26.”

Serving patients from 27 locations, Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers includes the 89-bed Morris Hospital, as well as physician offices in Braidwood, Channahon, Coal City, Dwight, Gardner, Marseilles, Mazon, Minooka, Morris, Newark, Ottawa, and Seneca.

Through the services of over 1,700 healthcare professionals, physicians, and volunteers, Morris Hospital provides lifesaving cardiac intervention with angioplasty and stents, a radiation therapy center for cancer patients, a state-of-the-art intensive care unit, a sleep center, and walk-in care at three urgent care locations. Morris Hospital is a Level II trauma center, a Level II perinatal care provider, and a primary stroke center. The hospital is known for its compassionate and personalized approach to healthcare.