Rome Health unveils plans for four new operating rooms

ROME, N.Y. — Rome Health will receive $26 million in funding from the New York State Department of Health Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program III to support its construction of an addition to house new operating rooms to modernize the hospital’s surgical services.

The hospital is building four new operating rooms to replace ones that have been in use for more than 57 years. The project will cost more than $30 million and surgical services will continue throughout construction. Rome Health expects to begin construction in late 2023.

The new operating rooms are designed with the size and flexibility to accommodate continuous advancements in technology such as robotics and more complex surgical procedures, Rome Health said. The hospital’s surgical volume increased 26 percent between 2020 and 2021 with the growth coming from general surgery, weight-loss surgery, and spine surgery.

“Modern facilities will allow Rome Health to meet our community’s increased surgical needs, recruit and retain the best and brightest providers, and make Rome Health a healthcare destination in this specialty,” Rome Health President/CEO AnneMarie Czyz said in a release.

She thanked state Sen. Joseph Griffo, Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon, Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente, Jr., Rome Mayor Jacki Izzo, and retired commissioner of the New York State Office of General Services RoAnn Destito for their assistance, advocating on behalf of the hospital’s funding application.

Rome Health, a nonprofit health-care system, provides services from primary to specialty care. It is an affiliate of St. Joseph’s Health and an affiliated clinical site of New York Medical College.