New Surgery Center a ‘crown jewel’ for hospital

Union General has accomplished an impressive feat with the new Surgery Center, doubling its operating room count from four to eight to keep up with the demands of a growing population, all while finishing the major $50 million project within budget and without taking on debt.

The expansion has been on the books for years as part of the Health System’s long-range planning that predates even the COVID-19 pandemic, and construction was a massive undertaking nearly three years in the making.

To build the Surgery Center, Union General had to conduct a 10,500 square-foot infill of the interior courtyard that required an excavator to be lowered by crane inside the hospital to clear space for the four new operating rooms, in addition to 15,000 square feet of renovations to the existing surgery area.

With the expansion, the operating rooms have been upgraded and outfitted with all the latest and greatest medical technologies, rivaling the state-of-the-art offerings of much larger hospitals.

But it wasn’t just equipment that received careful consideration. Every detail mattered when it came to planning the project.

Union General staff combed through the designs to find places to improve the result, evaluating everything from rounding off pillars for more efficient gurney traffic to maximizing the workspaces used by health care providers to put all needed equipment within convenient reach.

Right now, the Surgery Center regularly uses five of the operating rooms, sometimes opening up a sixth, meaning Union General is prepared to handle an influx of surgical patients for years to come.

The Health System already offers a wide array of surgical services to meet the health care needs of the area: General; Urology; Obstetrics & Gynecology; Ear, Nose, and Throat; Podiatry; Ophthalmology; Endoscopy; Orthopedics; Plastics; Pain Management; Pulmonology; and Cardiology.

And the expansion will make it easier to recruit even more surgical specialists moving forward to continue improving the health care available in the rural region of North Georgia and Western North Carolina.

Dr. Jacob Stirton, who specializes in Orthopedic Surgery & Sports Medicine, encapsulated the mood of the occasion well, highlighting the gratitude of the hardworking clinic staff, pre-op and recovery nurses, circulating nurses, nurse anesthetists, surgical technicians and others.

“So much has gone into this to make this vision come true,” Dr. Stirton said. “This is a crown jewel for this hospital and for this community – it is truly a remarkable thing.

“It’s a very proud moment for all of us to be able to share this space with our community, to invite you to see and experience something that we have the privilege of seeing every day.

“Our words often fall short; we can tell our family and our friends what an incredible place we have here, but it just doesn’t do it justice, so, welcome.”

Community members certainly felt welcome, enjoying the tours and refreshments afterward. Retired operating room nurses Brad and Berni Volkmann, who moved to the area from Florida last summer, were excited to check out the investments Union General Hospital has made.

“We were really curious to see what this was like because we were traveling nurses, so we’ve been everywhere,” Berni said. “We just really wanted to see how this (new Surgery Center) was organized, and it’s wonderful.”

Added Brad, “It’s one of the best I’ve seen – organized, laid out nicely, clean, the hallways are clear, the rooms are big. One thing that is really obvious is the care for the staff.

“Everything is organized for the staff. It’s not like the nurse has to struggle to do their job; they thought of the nurse equal to the patient. They put a lot of thought into it.”

The surgery overhaul is actually Phase II of a planned three-phase expansion. Phase I was the Medical Office Building that opened in 2023, and Phase III will consist of a multistory tower to grow ER, OB, ICU and other services while upping the number of observation beds on campus.

Phase III has no firm timeline, as hospital officials hope to continue no-debt construction and are wanting to take the time to save for that project. However, Phase II also consisted of major upgrades to the Central Energy Plant to futureproof power needs for when that time comes.

“As we build volume and get the OR busier, that will help us be able to afford expanding the rest of the hospital,” Health System Chief Nursing Officer Julia Barnett said. “We feel blessed to have these resources and this beautiful facility that provides surgical services to our community so they can get all the care they need here in a beautiful new OR.”