YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Orthopaedic Surgery Center, this year celebrating 20 years in the Mahoning Valley, recorded its highest volume of surgical procedures in 2022.
While the pandemic drastically reduced elective surgeries, it also fueled a new level of awareness about the benefits of ambulatory surgical center facilities in minimizing risk, says Dr. Thomas Joseph, president of the Orthopaedic Surgery Center. Patients desired increased infection control, shorter lengths of stay, reduced costs and interacting with fewer people in smaller settings.
Embracing advances in technology, anesthesia and pain control allowed the center, at 8551 Crossroads Drive in Boardman, to perform more complex cases such as outpatient total joint replacement, according to Taylor Cera, chief operating office. The center drove down costs by increasing efficiencies and shortening lengths of stay.
Business and clinical staff increased to 35.
Expansion this year will include completion of the 36,000-square-foot medical office building connected to the surgical center.
“Our goal was to deliver innovation and access to a full spectrum of musculoskeletal services on one campus,” Cera says. “This campus will provide access to physicians, rehabilitation services and advanced imaging, and will be connected to the ambulatory surgical center.”
New services and surgeons will be added this year for foot and ankle patients. And an orthopaedic spine surgeon will be added to the pain management practice.
The ambulatory surgical center opened in 2003 at the Beeghly Medical Park. After years of steady growth, the stand-alone center was built in 2019, becoming the first such center in Ohio to use Stryker’s Mako robotics-assisted technology.
The center provides joint replacements; shoulder, elbow, foot, ankle and hand surgeries; trauma and fracture surgeries, plastic surgery, pain management and regenerative medicine.