MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER opened its Josie Robertson Surgery Center. At full capacity, the outpatient center will accommodate 60 surgeries a day.
The facility’s 12 operating rooms are designed for procedures for breast cancer and reconstruction, as well as head and neck, gynecologic, and urologic cancers, including procedures that traditionally required inpatient admission. More than 50 percent of the 20,000 surgeries performed at MSK in 2015 were outpatient procedures.
“We are pioneering a new standard for outpatient surgery, one that seeks to transform cancer surgery worldwide,” said JRSC Director Brett Simon. “Our commitment to elevating the patient experience is reflected in our emphasis on minimizing the anxiety often felt by patients undergoing cancer surgery. Incorporating technology-based tools—including video conferencing that enables patients to speak with their families or doctors at remote locations and a real-time location system that allows patients to move freely through many parts of the building, both before and after procedures—can help reduce those feelings of anxiety and keep patients focused on the most important thing, their recovery.”
The 16-story, 179,000-square-foot building is located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It was established in part by a gift of $50 million from the Robertson Foundation, which was founded in 1996 by Josephine (Josie) Robertson and her husband, investor Julian Robertson, along with their family. Josie Robertson was elected to MSK’s Board of Overseers in 2004.
