President's Corner - Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) Suite

February is more than half over and that means the grand opening of our newest priority project is around the corner!

Construction began on our second Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) Suite in this month, and is expected to be finished in the spring.

Minimally Invasive Surgery reduces patients’ pain, decreases recovery time, helps to improve wait times for surgical care and overall improves patient outcomes and satisfaction.

Our first MIS, The Paul B. Helliwell Foundation MIS Suite, was opened in September 2009 and our team of established MIS surgeons is able to provide a broad range of MIS laparoscopic services including:

·     Adrenalectomy – the removal of cancerous adrenal glands

·     Percutaneous nephrolithotomy – removal of kidney stones

·     Laparoscopic nephrectomy – removal of all or part of an infected or cancerous kidney

·     Laparoscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomy (LAVH)

·     Laparoscopic abdominal hysterectomy (LAH)

·     Colon and rectum resection for benign and malignant disease

·     Gastrectomy

·     Hartman’s procedure and reversal of Hartman’s procedure – emergency procedure for a perforated bowel

·     Hernia repair

·     Splenectomy –removal of a diseased or damaged spleen

·     Thoracoscopy – internal examination of the pleural cavity (the body of cavity that surrounds the lungs

York Central Hospital is one of a few hospitals in the province that has such a complement of general surgeons with fellowship level training and the skills to perform advanced MIS procedures.  As a group, we are performing among the highest volumes of laparoscopic colon resections in the GTA.  As well, we are a provincial leader in MIS for colon cancer surgery. 

With this success come challenges. Simply, we do not have enough time available to schedule all the surgeries in one MIS Suite.  Moreover, to help York Central Hospital move closer to fulfilling our vision of becoming the finest community hospital in Canada, we are expanding our MIS services to include urology and gynaecology which will help patients suffering from prostate or bladder cancer and fibroid tumors.

With a second MIS Suite, operating room turnover, operative times, physical burden on nurses, team morale and overall efficiency will be improved which will add to these savings.  In addition, a second MIS will help our ability to attract top notch surgeons and retain our expert nurses and allied health professionals.

Perhaps most importantly, the impact on the patients will be outstanding.

The total costs for a second MIS Suite are estimated to be $525,000. If you are interested in helping us fund this vital initiative, please email me. Together, we can improve health care for residents in Southwest York Region.

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO