Enhanced Surgical Care with Hospital Expansion [Julia Yoder]

This video highlights the surgical expansion and renovation at Brookings Hospital and what it means for patients. Leaders from Brookings Health System explain the new operating rooms, procedure spaces, and same-day care area—designed to enhance comfort, efficiency, and safety. The goal remains the same: providing high-quality, personalized surgical care in an updated, patient-centered environment.

  • Expanded surgical footprint: The hospital added three enlarged operating rooms and two dedicated procedure rooms.
  • Private same-day care rooms: Twelve private pre- and post-operative rooms offer comfort similar to a traditional hospital stay.
  • Specialized surgical spaces: Dedicated rooms support robotic surgery, orthopedic procedures, and emergency C-sections.
  • Less intimidating options for minor procedures: Separate procedure rooms are available for colonoscopy, EGD, cataract, and blepharoplasty.
  • Commitment to quality remains unchanged: The expansion enhances—but does not replace—the hospital’s focus on safe, personalized care.

Frequently Asked Questions

A hospital surgical expansion is a renovation or construction project that increases and upgrades surgical spaces, equipment, and patient care areas. It typically includes additional operating rooms, procedure rooms, and recovery areas designed to improve efficiency, patient comfort, and safety.

Hospitals expand surgical areas to accommodate growing patient needs, support advanced technology, and improve workflow. Dedicated spaces for specific procedures—such as robotic surgery or orthopedic operations—allow teams to perform surgeries more efficiently and safely.

An operating room (OR) is designed for more complex or major surgeries that require advanced equipment and a full surgical team. A procedure room is typically used for minimally invasive or diagnostic procedures, such as colonoscopy or EGD, and may feel less intimidating for patients.

The expanded space supports general surgery, ENT, urology, orthopedics, emergency C-sections, robotic-assisted surgery, colonoscopy, EGD, cataract surgery, and blepharoplasty. Dedicated rooms help ensure equipment is ready and optimized for each specialty.

The goal of expansion is to enhance the care environment—not change the hospital’s standards. Quality, safe, and personalized patient care remains the priority, with updated facilities designed to better support that mission.

Video Transcript

Julia: Hi, I'm Julia Yoder, the Marketing and PR Director at Brookings Health System. I'd like to welcome you to Brookings Hospital. One of the service areas we've included in our recent expansion and renovation project is surgery. I'm joined here today with our Operating Room and CSR Director, Candy. Candy, what can you tell me about the area that we're at here?  
 
Candy: What we're in currently is what we call the same-day care area, and it provides the 12 private rooms for pre- and post-operative care of our surgical patients. It's also a nice design in that patients can still experience the comforts that they did of a regular hospital room. It has their own TV and the stretchers are outfitted just like a hospital bed. 
 
Julia: And so, we have three new OR rooms, too. What can you tell me about those?  
 
Candy: Yes, we do have three enlarged OR operating theaters now, and the operating rooms are fantastic. We have them designated as certain rooms, although all three operating rooms are available for any type of procedure, whether it be general surgery, ENT, urology, orthopedic.  
 
We have a designated c-section room that is always setup, ready to go, for emergency-type c-sections. We have a designated robotic room where we keep our robotic equipment, and then, we have a designated orthopedic room that provides the space that orthopedic procedures require.  
 
Julia: And there's also two new procedure rooms. Why were those added?  
 
Candy: We wanted to add the procedure rooms because then we could provide an option for patients who are undergoing minimal, diagnostic procedures, such as colonoscopy and EGD. This way, they would not have to be intimidated by going into an OR area. We also have one procedure room that is designated for outpatient ophthalmology surgeries, such as cataracts and blepharoplasty.  
 
Julia: So for patients who come here to have a procedure, what changes will they notice and what's remained the same?  
 
Candy: What we've always strived for is to provide quality, safe, and personalized patient care, that remains the same. I believe this new setting just will enhance that.  
 
Julia: Thanks for sharing, Candy. If you would like to learn more about surgery at Brookings Health System, please visit us online at brookingshealth.org/surgery

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