Facility Spotlight

Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center partnered with surgeons from the Connecticut Joint Replacement Institute to build The Lighthouse Surgery Center, a $26.5 million orthopedic facility in Hartford, Conn. The facility, which sits across the street from the hospital, opened its doors this month. Patients will receive advanced joint, spine and pain management care in a cutting-edge surgical facility with the warm, inviting look of a New England seaside hotel.

The center specializes in lengthy joint replacement cases, so the surgeons wanted to create a functional waiting area where family members can comfortably spend several hours. The welcoming lounge features floor-to-ceiling windows, a fireplace and a variety of seating options. Friends and family members waiting for their loved ones in surgery can chat in semi-private spaces, work on their laptops at desks or sit in an isolation chair and plug into personal devices. Michael Joyce, MD, president and CEO of Lighthouse Surgery Center, says the inspiration for the versatile function of the space was based on a Virgin Atlantic first class lounge he saw in London's Heathrow Airport, which accommodated travelers who were simply passing through or waiting during long layovers.

The facility's lighthouse theme inspired a color palate of aquamarines and blues. Postmodern furniture, sleek lines and artwork specially created for the facility tie the look together.

Each of the facility's six oversized ORs are 630 square feet and feature mobile, six-foot-tall procedure-specific storage cabinets, which are wheeled into and out of the rooms as needed. The mobile cabinets help to shave valuable minutes off turnover times, and the lack of permanent storage in the rooms maintains their versatility and adaptability. Ceiling-mounted booms at the head of the table house surgical, video and anesthesia equipment, and provide the surgical team with 240 degrees of access to the patient without wires or cords getting in the way.

Dr. Joyce says the pace of surgical care has limited the opportunity for collaboration among surgical professionals. Observation rooms built adjacent to the ORs offer a comfortable place for physical therapists, athletic trainers and other surgeons to exchange ideas and discuss ways to improve patient care while they observe surgery through windows or watch live feeds of arthroscope images routed to large flat screen monitors.