BLACKSBURG, Va. – Nearly a year to the day after construction started, LewisGale Hospital Montgomery finally cut the ribbon on their new surgery department expansion.
Chief of Surgery Jason Fowlkes said the nearly $16 million project has been a long time coming.
“Everybody always needs more space. I feel like isn’t that kind of a commonality. At your house you’re like, ‘I wish I had an extra closet, I wish I had an extra spare bedroom or something.’ Having that extra room is always nice,” Fowlkes said.
The hospital added 7,500 square feet to its surgical center in addition to renovating the existing 4,800 square feet.
This included two brand-new operating rooms and a 15-bed post-anesthesia care unit.
“Adding this extra space is going to help us be more of a premiere destination,” Fowlkes said.
CEO Lauren Dudley said they want to be the option for care in the New River Valley.
“Our mission continues to be quality care, a commitment to compassionate care, and just making sure we are serving a growing community,” Dudley said.
Fowlkes said new robotic surgical equipment will allow for more advanced surgical skills and care.
“I do robotics here and we’ve had a little bit of a struggle around just access to the system so adding a second robot really helps us to provide not just myself but other surgeons access to the equipment,” he said.
They hope to not only attract more members of the community but more health care professionals as well.
“We have multiple physicians that are onboarding this summer that are excited to be a part of this, and then we will continue to recruit nurses to take care of these patients in this surgical services space,” Dudley said.
Fowlkes said this extra space is crucial to reaching more of the community.
“We have just gotten more and more busy and we’re taking care of not just our community but surrounding communities and so I think having that extra space to care for not only our patients but folks near us is very very critical at this point in the pandemic or kind of this post-pandemic phase,” he said.