BUFFALO, NEW YORK; December 30, 2013—Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) Corporation today held an open house of the expansion of its operating rooms in the new ECMC Surgical Center, including two new state-of-the-art operating suites with related recovery and surgical service space. The operating suite is 25,000 square feet in size and includes two additional “shelled” operating rooms prepared for future expansion.
The ECMC Surgical Center is located on the first floor of the new Ambulatory Centerbuilding on the ECMC Health Campus. The new operating room suites in a separate building include the latest technology for minimally invasive procedures, on-site diagnostic pathology, pre-operative and post-operative private patient “bays,” and a PeriOptimum patient tracking system to communicate real-time patient status to families and the healthcare team.
The new suites are needed because of significant increases in ECMC’s surgical volume in recent years. This is specifically related to an increase in emergency room volume; consolidation of all Great Lakes Health transplantation programs for kidney and pancreas transplantation on the ECMC Health Campus; and an increase in surgical volume generated from the hiring of/partnering with new surgeons and physicians. ECMC has also seen significant surgical growth in orthopedics and has started a new plastic and reconstructive surgery service, including head and neck and breast cancer surgery.
“This opening completes one more exciting expansion as we continue to grow and provide the best patient experience for our community,” said ECMC CEO Jody L. Lomeo. “This expansion along with other developments on the ECMC Health Campus has accounted for more than $200 million in patient-focused capital improvements and investments on our Grider Street campus in the last few years.”
ECMC’s Outpatient Dialysis Center is also located on the ground floor of theAmbulatory Center building, and medical office space on the second and third floors is in the final phase of construction.
The Regional Center of Excellence for Transplantation and Kidney Care is now entering its third year of operation. Last February, ECMC dedicated the new Terrace View Long-Term Care Facility, moving the former Erie County nursing home from Alden to the ECMC Health Campus. In recent months, ECMC also completed a re-design of its front entrance roadways for more efficient traffic flow and an expansion of its parking facilities. Early in 2014, ECMC will open its all new Behavioral Health Center of Excellence on the ECMC Health Campus.
The home and the centers of excellence are part of a five-year, $200 million project on ECMC’s Health Campus that when complete will provide good-paying jobs and health-focused economic development centered on Buffalo’s East Side.
Transformation of ECMC’s Health Campus, which now has 550 beds and had 63,918 ER visits in 2012, actually began in June 2010. ECMC used $2.9 million to expand its Emergency Department, with eight new trauma exam rooms and two new trauma surgical suites within the medical center building. ECMC is already home to the state’s top-rated Adult Regional Trauma Center.
With an estimated overall economic impact on the region of $750 million, ECMC has not required any operating subsidy from the county since 2008.
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