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Baptist Clay opens new surgery center

Nick Blank
Posted 12/5/18

FLEMING ISLAND – Baptist Health’s new $11.7 million ambulatory surgery center opened Tuesday with a celebratory ribbon-cutting.

A crowd of about 50 toured the facility and the equipment and …

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Baptist Clay opens new surgery center


Posted

FLEMING ISLAND – Baptist Health’s new $11.7 million ambulatory surgery center opened Tuesday with a celebratory ribbon-cutting.

A crowd of about 50 toured the facility and the equipment and amenities offered. Darin Roark, vice president of Ambulatory Campuses and System Emergency Services, said the facility was for residents who want to stay in the county for surgeries.

“We’ve been blessed to receive a tremendous reception from the people who live around this campus and through Clay County,” Roark said. “[The surgery center] is unlike anything in the area. Every aspect in the facility has been built to provide a better patient experience.”

The center has two 600-square-foot surgical suites, with additional procedural rooms for minor surgeries such as colonoscopies and endoscopies. The center also has nine private rooms for families and a recovery area for patients immediately exiting surgery.

Roark pointed to the lighting on the side of the ceiling, specifically to avoid disorienting patients.

“As patients are wheeled from the recovery spaces and head back and forth to the operating suites, they won’t have to experience that light sensation you’ve all seen in the movies,” Roark said. “Those are the types of details we’ve looked at to the enhance the patient experience.”

Mark Poon, Baptist Clay Outpatient Surgery manager, said the center was built specifically to serve the county.

“There’s a lot of patients and they don’t want to drive across the bridge,” Poon said. “This is the place where we wanted to have a healing environment in the county. [Referring to the private rooms] Families don’t have to take the day off, they can stay in surgery center.”

Baptist Health CEO Hugh Greene said his upcoming retirement gave him a chance to reflect on the beginning of Baptist Health in the county five years ago.

“When I drive up here, I remembered when we were first looking at this property. We had community meetings and some citizens were concerned about noise from a helipad and visual distractions of the lights,” Greene said. “It was kind of speculative, but the community rallied behind it and we got the approval to build it. Fast forward to now and look what’s on this campus.”

Greene said he would be present the next time Baptist Health had a ribbon-cutting in Clay County – for a hospital. Three years ago, a planned $80 million effort to add in-patient beds to the county was rejected by the state, due to certificate of need laws, which limit the number of new hospital beds depending on the population.

“It’s just a question of timing of when that’s going to occur, and we add in-patient beds to the campus,” Greene said.