Reston Hospital to upgrade surgery space with nearly $20M project

Reston Hospital Center is spending nearly $20 million for upgrades and renovations as it prepares to enhance its robotic-assisted surgery program.

The project calls for constructing four new, larger operating rooms and modernizing other areas “to provide added capacity to Reston’s robust surgical offering which performs over 10,000 surgeries annually,” a news release said.

The design phase of the renovation, which will involve over 22,000 square feet of space, is scheduled to begin this summer.

“This infusion of capital will upgrade our surgical capability and capacity to help deliver a world-class surgical experience for our patients and surgical care teams,” John Deardorff, chief executive officer of the HCA Healthcare Northern Virginia market and Reston Hospital Center, said in the news release.

The Richmond-headquartered health care system said the changes will help serve more patients. The hospital expects surgeries to continue uninterrupted during the project, hospital spokesman Todd McGovern said in an email.

The new and upgraded operating suites will help improve patient outcomes through the adoption of emerging technologies and innovative surgical approaches to help reduce hospital stays and lessen recovery times. The added capacity will allow Reston Hospital’s care teams to treat more patients needing complex spine care, orthopedic care, and minimally invasive surgery across a range of surgical specialty areas such as bariatric (weight loss), colorectal, general, hepatobiliary, gynecologic, thoracic (lung), and urologic surgery.

The Food and Drug Administration and researchers previously shared concerns about various robotic surgeries, noting that although they’ve been taking place in the U.S. since 2000, patients should be aware of outcomes and available evidence.

Different types of surgical areas have been taking off. Based on one measure, the number of general surgery procedures conducted by U.S. hospitals rose from 10,000 in 2010 to 246,000 in 2017, according to a physicians’ estimate.

Some doctors also raised concerns about costs for rural hospitals, noting in December 2020 that despite advantages noted with the procedures, there’s still a lack of high-quality evidence in most areas.

The planned upgrades are in addition to the hospital projecting to spend $70 million on projects that include a new freestanding emergency department at 8240 Leesburg Pike in Tysons coming in 2022.