Excela unveils $10 million robotic surgical center with focus on cancer

Excela Health unveiled a new $10 million surgical institute Wednesday with a focus on cancer treatment at the health system’s Latrobe Hospital. Officials said that it will allow residents in the region to receive state-of-the-art robotic surgery and care at the local facility.

The robotic surgery that has been performed the past few months at the new surgical institute in Latrobe is less invasive, creates a smaller incision and allows for a quicker recovery for the patient to return to their home, said Dr. Michael Szwerc, Excela thoracic surgeon.

It will streamline the cancer treatment process so that patients will be able to undergo medical tests, get a diagnosis, undergo any surgery needed and get other treatment faster than at other health care systems where beds may not be available because of covid patients, Szwerc said.

“We need specialized cancer care in this community right here and now,” said Szwerc, director for Excela’s Center for Lung and Thoracic Disease.

The surgical institute, carved out of an underutilized section of the hospital’s second floor, has one surgical robot, two operating rooms, and a navigational bronchoscopy system to examine and treat lesions in the lungs. There were upgrades to operating room equipment and patient rooms. Staff work areas have been remodeled, too.

Excela anticipates adding another robotic surgical system at Latrobe Hospital.

In addition to treating cancer, Szewerc said the surgical institute can be used for treating colon cancer, prostate cancer and intestinal cancer. The institute also will serve as an educational facility for the next generation of physicians and nurses, said Szwerc, who also is medical director of robotic surgery.

Excela Health covered $8 million of the $10 million cost in both technology and facility upgrades with money from its capital budget. The remaining $2 million came from a grant from the Latrobe Area Hospital Charitable Foundation.

Excela Health has had partnership of more than 20 years with UPMC Hillman Cancer Center’s facility at the Arnold Palmer Pavilion at Mountain View in Unity. That partnership uses Latrobe Hospital for delivering stereotactic body radiation therapy and high-dose rate brachytherapy.

Szwerc offered some sobering statistics on cancer diagnoses this year: 1.9 million in the nation with about 600,000 deaths.

But he said that with cancer screening, surgery, chemotherapy and other treatments, survival rates have risen to about 68% from a much lower rate decades ago, Szwerc said.

John Sphon, Excela Health chief executive, said the new surgical institute is part of the health system’s evolution from a community-based group of hospitals —including Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg and Frick Hospital in Mt. Pleasant — “to a true system of care.”

Excela Health previously had created a heart, lung and vascular institute at Westmoreland Hospital.

“In the final analysis, it is a place of hope and healing,” Sphon said.

Dr. Carol Fox, Excela’s chief medical officer, likened what the new surgical institute could do for Excela Health’s efforts to recruit physicians and other medical professionals, to the fabled baseball movie, “Field of Dreams.”

“If you build it, they will come,” Fox said.