Memorial Hospital of Carbondale unveiled its new four-story, 56-million dollar modernization and expansion Thursday.
The two-year long project includes three new operating rooms, including hybrid and robotics O-R facilities, the first modernization of the Intensive Care Unit in over 30 years and more private pre-op and post-op areas.
During the ribbon cutting ceremony, hospital administrator Bart Millstead said this is about bringing more progressive medicine to the community.
"In just the last two years alone, we've raised the level of care and the quality of life in southern Illinois with the expansion of the SIH Cancer Institute and now the expansion here for surgery."
Millstead says the expansion means they now have enough space for all the specialists they've recruited.
Southern Illinois Healthcare CEO Rex Budde said expansions are possible because the community trusts SIH to take care of them.
"And they trust us to take care of them because of the hard work on the part of our staff, our physicians, the dedication on the part of the Board of Directors to have a vision for this organization."
O.R. manager Adam Benns says he's most excited about the same day surgery unit and the added privacy it will provide patients and staff.
"Being able to have a conversation - just on the most basic level - was difficult when there are only curtains separating you. A lot of information that is required of us to ask is of a delicate nature. So, being able to do that in a more controlled setting now is going to make a big difference for patient care."
Dr. Mohammad Al-Zoubaidi is a vascular surgeon. He says this allows area residents to receive more specialized care close to home, instead of going to St. Louis.
"There really is no need for transporting any patient out now in terms of starting from evaluating the patient to operating on them and to recovering them in this area. There is no doubt we'll be able to keep a huge number of patients in our area and be able to deliver good care to them."
The new operating rooms have been in use since February. The new ICU will be up and running within a couple of weeks.
