Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
In 1976, when Kosciusko Community Hospital first opened, 1,800 surgeries were performed a year.
Today, there are 4,300 surgeries a year in the same facilities, Wayne Hendrix, chief executive officer at KCH, said Monday.
And although patients are no longer required to stay in the hospital for three days or more, the need for a larger surgical area is obvious to hospital officials.
Monday, a groundbreaking ceremony was held at the hospital beginning the expansion and renovation of the surgery area.
The Kosciusko SurgiCenter is planned to be 13,122 square feet, expanding east from the hospital's present lobby and registration areas. The size of the current surgical area is 5,400 square feet. The addition will include two major operating room suites, two minor procedure rooms and 17 private prep and recovery beds.
"Surgery procedures performed at Kosciusko Community Hospital have increased by 34.8 percent from 1995 to 1999," said Lora Beeson, division director of outpatient services at the hospital. "The Kosciusko SurgiCenter will provide patients with increased medical technology, equipment and facilities to improve their quality of care."
Besides increasing access and comfort for patients, the expansion will improve facilities for the surgeons.
"While quality patient care is our No. 1 priority, the SurgiCenter is also geared to assist our highly skilled surgeons by providing state-of-the-art facilities and equipment to make their environment as efficient as possible," said Beeson.
Additional staff will be hired at Kosciusko SurgiCenter, including a full-time anesthesiologist, nurses and registration staff members. The project is expected to be completed by February 2001.
Dr. K.T. Kishan, the hospital's chief of surgery, said, "I am very excited and certain this project will immensely benefit all of us in Warsaw and the surrounding communities. I take pride in the knowledge, skills and dedication of our surgical specialists and the supporting staff at this hospital. Our goal in the new SurgiCenter is to provide a more advanced and wider range of surgical procedures using state-of-the-art technologies in a warm, friendly, comfortable, convenient and efficient environment."
The next priority for the hospital includes a comprehensive approach to addressing women's specialized health care needs through the Kosciusko Women's Center to be built on the KCH campus. Further research is currently being conducted on a cancer care center.
