Four new operating rooms built solely for cardiac surgery have been unveiled at St. Elizabeth Healthcare's Edgewood, Kentucky campus, giving the hospital system what it describes as the first site of its kind in the state. The rooms are designed to speed up complex heart procedures amid rising demand for cardiac care.
The new site is built around procedures for moments when seconds count, according to the hospital. According to WKRC, Dr. Schuler said the equipment inside the four dedicated rooms is necessary for the complexity of modern cardiac surgery, with monitors, tools and workspaces arranged so surgeons, nurses and staff can move efficiently during operations. The rooms support endoscopic surgery, robotic surgery and other advanced procedures, and patients are moved directly across the hall to the cardiovascular ICU once surgery is complete.
The expansion lands atop an already accomplished cardiac program. St. Elizabeth performs roughly 550 cardiac surgeries a year, all of them at the Edgewood campus, within the 67,000-square-foot Florence Wormald Heart & Vascular Institute, according to HeartValveSurgery.com. That building was funded in part by a $7 million gift from local businessman William J. Yung III, in honor of his mother; LINK nky described it as the largest donation in St. Elizabeth Healthcare's history.
A Program Already Ranked Among the Nation's Best
St. Elizabeth Healthcare publishes outcomes information on its website. St. Elizabeth Edgewood holds a three-star rating — the highest tier awarded by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons — for both coronary artery bypass grafting and mitral valve surgery, a distinction earned by fewer than 10% of cardiothoracic programs nationwide.
St. Elizabeth's cardiac program is led by what the hospital calls world-class surgeons, and the new operating rooms give that team a dedicated space built specifically around the technology those surgeons already use.
Chest-Sparing Surgery Through a Coin-Sized Incision
Among the technologies housed in the new rooms is Totally Endoscopic Cardiac Surgery, a technique performed by St. Elizabeth cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Mario Castillo-Sang using 3D 4K imaging through an incision two to three centimeters wide, avoiding opening the chest or cutting bone, according to LINK nky. The technique uses a 3D 4K endoscopic system for magnified, high-definition imaging without a traditional open-chest incision.
WKRC reports that St. Elizabeth now offers minimally invasive options for virtually every major category of heart disease, including coronary artery bypass grafting, mitral valve replacement and repair, and aortic valve replacement. The hospital has treated patients in their 30s and 40s with valvular problems needing repair or replacement, and notes that heart murmurs — while sometimes benign — can in many cases warrant medical intervention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists heart disease as the No. 1 killer of both men and women, the outlet notes.
Regional Demand for Heart Care
The expansion comes amid rising demand for cardiac care in the region.
St. Elizabeth is expanding surgical capacity to address rising demand for cardiac care. The new Edgewood suites are meant to shorten the gap between diagnosis and the operating table, giving patients with urgent valve or bypass needs a faster path through the system.
A Regional Arms Race in Heart Surgery
St. Elizabeth's launch also comes amid regional investment in cardiac care. In August 2026, Cincinnati's The Christ Hospital performed what was described as the world's first robotic ascending-aorta replacement using a graft and the da Vinci 5 platform, a milestone Hoodline detailed in its earlier coverage of the region's push toward advanced, minimally invasive heart procedures. St. Elizabeth's new operating rooms provide dedicated space for complex cardiac cases at the Edgewood campus.
