SPRINGFIELD — Operating rooms that are double the size and provide space for the necessary technology for surgeries with smaller incisions, allowing patients to recover faster, are opening at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield this week.

The hospital announced the completion of a $170 million project that, in a 72,000-square-foot facility, includes 24 operating rooms, four of which previously existed and all of which are twice as large as the former rooms, eight heart and vascular and neuro interventional procedure rooms and 80 preparation and recovery bays, 60 of which are newly built.

Dr. Mark A. Keroack, president and CEO of Baystate Health, said in a statement that finishing the multiyear project continues the hospital’s more than centurylong mission of caring for people in western Massachusetts and beyond.

“Our new operating rooms and interventional suites will allow us to build a strong future that supports the technical and clinical advances in the ever-changing world of surgery,” Keroack said.

The build out is inside the “Hospital of the Future” building constructed in 2012.

The 20 new operating rooms, replacing ones that opened 40 years ago in the Daly Building on Baystate’s main campus, are state of the art and large enough to accommodate the technology for surgeons to safely and successfully perform a growing number of minimally invasive procedures. Baystate’s doctors annually perform 29,000 surgeries.

These rooms are used for inpatient surgeries that involve an overnight stay, including cancer surgery, cardiac surgery, total joint replacement surgery and orthopedic trauma and general trauma surgery.

Sheldrick Streete, chief operating officer for Baystate Medical Center, said in a statement that the operating and procedure rooms are built to provide the best environment for providers and patients.

“Everyone who has been involved in the planning, design and those who will operationalize the space have been focused on ensuring our patients have a great experience and the best possible outcome,” Streete said.

The hope is that the completed project will attract the best and brightest surgeons, interventional cardiologists, and neuro interventionalists, along with nurses, technologists and other care team members.

Baystate is an academic medical center that trains the next generation of surgeons.

“The newer and larger operating and procedure spaces, incorporating the latest technology to perform the most complex of cases, will further serve to attract medical students to complete their surgical residencies at Baystate,” said Dr. Nicolas Jabbour, who chairs the department of surgery at Baystate Health. “Many of these surgeons also choose to remain at Baystate once their residency is completed,”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>