The new space at Richmond University Medical Center represents the hospital’s vision for the future of surgery.

“It’s very exciting to all of us and we’ve been waiting for this,” Dr. Loren Harris, chair of surgery and chief of thoracic surgery, said.

The Lucille and Jay Chazanoff Surgical Pavilion is the third part of a $250 million project to improve care at the hospital.

“Well, this is years in the works. Lots of planning, really assessing the needs, looking at community needs, looking at our master facility plan. And this really represents a commitment to renovate and expand our acute care infrastructure,” Daniel J. Messina, RUMC president and CEO, said.

The over $40 million pavilion includes newly equipped operating rooms; some with the capacity to perform robotic surgery.

“The technology of surgery has advanced - using minimally invasive care means quicker recovery, less postoperative pain, more outpatient type of procedures, whereas before many times people had to stay in the hospital,” Harris said.

RUMC’s president and CEO said the pandemic played a large part in deciding what improvements needed to be made.

“So one of the great features of this design is double oxygen utility. So in a disaster, we could essentially put two patients in the space,” Messina said.

The hospital recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of its upgraded emergency department. RUMC is a Level 1 trauma center and part of the improvements include elevators that bring patients from the emergency room to the operating rooms in no time.

“Richmond University Medical center functions as the safety net hospital for our island,” Tim Harrison, chair of trustees, said.

There are no public hospitals in the borough. Hospital leaders said this not just improves the quality of care for hospital patients, but for all of Staten Island.

“About a third of our patients are privately insured or about a third of Medicare or Medicaid, and we do a lot of charity care. 16% of our patients are charity care patients, and they all have access now to state-of-the-art surgery facilities,” Harrison said.

“The operating rooms we had seriously needed upgrading. All the equipment you see behind you is truly the best in available for surgery. And what that means is that our surgeons can provide top-notch state-of-the-art care to our community and everybody [on] Staten Island,” Harris said.

The hospital said it’s anticipating the pavilion to open by the end of the month as it completed final inspections and certifications.