Staff photo / J.T. Whitehouse Administrator Amanda Lutz shows off the 17-bed recovery room at Mercy Health’s new outpatient surgery center in Canfield.

CANFIELD — Mercy Health Youngstown hosted an open house Wednesday to showcase its new ambulatory surgery facility at 4147 Westford Drive. The point-of-care outpatient surgery center will help ease the burden on the Youngstown and Boardman hospitals, officials said.

“The new center complements the already high-quality care provided at St. Elizabeth Boardman and Youngstown hospitals,” Dr. John Luellen, market president for Mercy Health Youngstown said. “This new ambulatory center allows us to perform important surgical procedures in an environment specifically designed for patients that will be home to recover the same day, allowing us to provide more complex procedures at our hospitals.”

The new center is located in the former Canfield Surgery Center that closed in 2019. The building was renovated and has been equipped with the needed items for outpatient surgeries and procedures. It includes a 17-bed recovery room.

At present, administrator Amanda Lutz has a staff of seven that includes two nurses, a surgery technologist, a sterile processing technician, a surgery scheduler, a receptionist and a radiology technologist.

“I am intent on hiring more staff soon,” Lutz said.

St. Elizabeth Boardman President Genie Aubel said the facility will employ between 15 to 20 to start and may add more down the road. To start, the focus will be on podiatry, orthopedics and plastic surgeries with more areas phased in over time.

“The volume at Belmont and Boardman has been growing year to year,” Aubel said. “This gives us the ability to off-load cases not requiring overnight stays or monitoring.”

She added the new outpatient center would benefit patients with lower costs and less time involved, compared to having the surgery at the hospitals.

The new Canfield facility is setting up to start receiving patients in July.