The Timmermeister Family Surgery Center, completed in January 2008, features an addition of 24,000 square feet of space, for a total of six new state-of-the-art, fully-equipped surgical suites. Lima Memorial now has a total of surgical suites, include two new open heart surgery suites.
The Surgery Center was made possible by a generous gift from the Timmermeister Family. According to donor Bill Timmermeister, it is exciting to see his family’s long-standing relationship with LMHS materialize and to see the Surgery Center come to life.
His grandmother, Kathleen C., was the Hospital’s first female board member and his father, John W., was a longtime board member and is currently an emeritus board member. “We believe it [the Surgery Center] is a wonderful new asset to the Hospital and a terrific benefit to those in the 10 county health service area,” he said.
Open Heart Surgery
The Timmermeister Family Surgery Center has enabled LMHS to include open-heart surgery within the same area as all other surgeries. Now, the procedures will be done in the same surgical area and have easy access to the rest of the cardiac areas which are located next to the Surgery Center.
According to Ronald Pohl, medical director of cardiac surgery at LMHS, the new state-of-the-art facility is instrumental in quality patient care as well as in staff education. “Having the open heart suites located within the surgery center will mean that we are centrally located and able to facilitate patient services easier."
General Surgery
The increased size of the surgical suites in The Timmermeister Family Surgery Center benefits surgeons in several ways and in turn patients should also see benefits.
According to Dr. Jeffrey M. Wisser, division chief of general surgery, “The two major advantages of the new surgery center are convenience and efficiency.” He said that surgical procedures are now more efficient because extra instrumentation is immediately available.
The larger size of the surgical suites creates space for the larger surgical equipment and things no longer need to be kept in a storage area and brought in and out during procedures. Instruments are immediately available when needed.
Overall, Dr. Wisser said, the surgery center is now more accessible, and has improved visualization and safety aspects. “It’s nice to see the new operative suites and hopefully more patients will be having their operations at Lima Memorial,” he said.
