OUTPATIENT SURGERY CENTERS MEET GROWING EXPECTATIONS

The growth of outpatient surgery centers in Cape Girardeau has helped to hold surgery costs down in the region for all surgery patients.

Cape Girardeau has three outpatient surgery centers, including two that opened in the last nine months. A growing number of outpatient surgeries are performed as well at both St. Francis Medical Center and Southeast Missouri Hospital. About 65 percent of all hospital surgery locally is done on an outpatient basis.

The city can boast of the first outpatient surgery center in the state: Doctor's Park Surgery. When it opened in 1975 there were only 42 such centers in the U.S. Today, there are more than 1,600 centers.

Competition of these new centers has helped to hold costs down both at outpatient centers and at local hospitals. In a world of skyrocketing medical costs, outpatient surgeries buck the trend, saving patients both time and money. And that gives consumers something to smile about.