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Orthopedic Center Ivy Road (OCIR) is excited to announce the latest milestone it has reached on UVA Health’s Perioperative Services roadmap to creating more operating room (OR) space to meet the growing demands of patients and surgical team members. 

In March 2025, our Perioperative leadership launched a plan to expand OR capacity — across all our sites — by 12% in 18 months. The University Medical Center Perioperative Roadmap Expansion Plan (PREP) aims to meet the initial 12% expansion goal by:

• Increasing staffing.
• Expanding hours.
• Maximizing efficiency.
• Opening new OR space.
• Providing the associated operational infrastructure to generate the equivalent of six additional ORs.

PREP also allows Periop to grow our capacity, lower surgical wait times, maximize efficiency and quality, and accommodate emergency surgical patient needs. 

Marking the Milestone

OCIR is proud to announce that on July 1, it met the goal of opening two more Orthopedic ORs — and since then, it already has doubled its daily case volume. This is a welcome capacity addition for all service lines, as the OR block time (by Ortho shifting out of Outpatient Surgery Center [OPSC] and Main OR) already has been allocated to the new service line owners. 

OCIR held a celebration on July 9 to mark the milestone! 

'Very Exciting Time'

“It’s truly inspiring to see this plan expanding access for patients and bringing the OCIR vision to life,” says Liz Hall, Administrator, Perioperative Services. “Huge thanks to everyone whose passion, dedication, and hard work have made this possible — we couldn’t do it without you! So pleased to see this come to fruition — and grateful for everyone’s support and collaboration.” 

“This is a very exciting time for our patients and our department. Thanks to the effort of our OCIR team and support of University Medical Center leadership, we have increased surgical capacity and can provide a more appropriate outpatient environment for our Orthopedic surgical patients,” says A. Bobby Chhabra, MD, Director, UVA Orthopaedic Center and Chair, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, UVA School of Medicine.  “Our OCIR OR team has received several Patient Experience awards this past year reflecting the exceptional, high quality, and efficient care we provide for our patients. I am very proud of our team and look forward to further expansion of our Orthopaedic ORs at OCIR in the future.” 

“Expanding our Operating Room capacity is not just about numbers — it’s about enhancing the quality of care we deliver to our patients. This milestone reflects our commitment to meeting the growing needs of our community while empowering our surgical teams to operate at their best,” says Min Lee, MBA, MHA, Chief Operating Officer, UVA Health University Medical Center. “I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our dedicated team whose hard work and collaboration have made this achievement possible. Together, we are building a stronger foundation for the future of healthcare at UVA Health.” 

Ahead on the Roadmap

There are plans to: 

• Increase staff — including specialty OR teams — to manage the high volume of OR cases and support our growing OR demand. 

• Expand more main OR block time to 12 hours, along with allocating more Saturday elective ORs. 

• Provide anesthesia coverage for the procedure room at Surgical Care Riverside. 

• Renovate the IMRIS ORs to gain full functionality of IMRIS 2. 

• Provide necessary operational infrastructure to support growth (e.g., sterile processing, radiology, PACU, pre-operative services). 

Congratulations to OCIR on strengthening our foundation by modernizing operations to make it easier for patients to access Orthopedic services — and for teams to provide superior safety, quality, care, and outcomes.