Transition to New Santagati Center Now Underway

Celebrating the Santagati Center at Lawrence General

For the last 50 years, physicians and hospital staff have performed surgeries in the same location at Lawrence General Hospital. In March, we began the historic move of the service from the Russell Building to the new Santagati Center. The realization of this strategic improvement will not only add new surgical capability at Lawrence General, it will also enable the hospital to realize many efficiencies and modern best practices.

"As you can imagine, moving from operating rooms built to support surgery in the 1970’s to suites that will take us decades into the future is no small undertaking,” says David Spofford, RN, BS, Senior Director for Surgical Services and Ambulatory Procedures. "To help our team be sure that we have thought of every detail and contingency of the moving process, we have engaged the expertise of Soyring Consulting—an organization that specializes in this work.” The move to the new space will provide Lawrence General with many opportunities to increase efficiencies around case turnovers and scheduling, as well as to reduce OR costs, and expand capacity for surgery.

Soyring Consulting is currently working with the Surgical Management Team to tackle both the logistics of the move itself, and the opportunities to lock in new processes and research growth opportunities. Ten teams are working on scheduling, preadmission testing process, as well as case cart assembly, inventory management, patient flow, sterile processing among other processes, in anticipation of the move. Thanks and congratulations to those teams, which include staff working daily in those areas, as well as leadership and the consultants from Soyring. 

Staff education and orientation to the new facility and technology will begin soon, and continue throughout the moving process. Education will include, planning sessions and computer training, walk throughs of the space, in service and scenario training and rehearsals. 

The physical transition from one space to another will be preceded by four weeks of pre-move preparation, including moving of processing equipment and case cart picking to the new Central Sterile Processing area and ongoing staff education classes. The details of the move are currently under detailed review to ensure that the occupancy of the new building is executed in the safest way with the least amount of disruption.

"This incredibly complex process will require the cooperation and understanding of many people who interact with our Surgical Services department, including the surgeons who operate here, and the staff who support the work of the ORs,” says David. “We will be in constant communication regarding the timing of the move and will have a command center in place during the moving period to maintain communication and address any questions or issues that come up. Stay tuned for more information as the dates approach!”