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While the Department of Surgery performed many routine operations on Friday, several procedures stood out from the rest – they took place at the corner of Brookline Avenue and Route 9, the site of New England Surgicare (NESC). On November 2, BWH opened new operating room space at New England Surgicare, a free-standing ambulatory surgical center.
Through a unique partnership, BWH and NESC will assist each other in delivering expanded patient care. BWH will achieve its goal of decompressing its main operating rooms, while in turn supporting an increased caseload at NESC, helping them to fully utilize their capacity. “A partnership with NESC presented a great opportunity to provide improved patient access for both institutions,” said Susan Dempsey, director, Surgical Program Development at BWH.
Negotiations with NESC began in January, which were followed by several steps to license a portion of the operating room space under BWH’s Department of Public Health license. This licensing ensured BWH patients and physicians that all procedures would be subject to the standard of excellence and quality that BWH upholds. Clinical practice standards, administrative processes and clinical support services for BWH at NESC patients will be the same for those patients at the main campus.
Through the NESC agreement, BWH physicians will have access to the equivalent of 80 operating hours per week. BWH at NESC will be targeted for low acuity, day surgical procedures that are currently conducted at BWH. These include: general; orthopedic; otolaryngology, gynecologic and plastic surgery. “Our aim is to provide a satellite location for BWH patients that will prevent them from having to wait for operating space to open at BWH. NESC will be equipped to handle otherwise healthy patients who need a surgical procedure,” said Dempsey.
Dempsey described the BWH-NESC partnership as a “win – win” situation. “NESC will be able to utilize their capacity, while presenting an opportunity for BWH to serve more surgical patients and increase operating room capacity without construction,” she added.