ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Keeping bacteria and germs away during surgeries and other medical procedures is essential to keeping patients safe.

A first-of-its-kind surgery facility is now making that challenging task a little bit easier.

As orthopedic surgeon Paul Rubery walks down the hall on the spot of what was once an old Sears department store, he sees the future of cleaner, more efficient surgeries inside the doors.

“We're seeing a revolution in the technology of orthopedic surgery where we can do surgeries that used to involve a week in the hospital, [they] can now be done with going home the same day," said Dr. Rubery.

UR Medicine is the first academic health center in the world to install the Clean Cube operating room. Built in a Colorado factory, it was trucked to Rochester and installed at a surgery center in Marketplace Mall in weeks, not the months that building an OR like this usually takes.

“A lot of things happen just by being in the right place at the right time,” said Dr. Rubery.

Renderings show the state-of-the-art cleaning method used to disinfect the OR between surgeries.

“This is the Bioquell hydrogen peroxide fog generator," said Dr. Rubery. "And this machine is the machine that actually produces the cleaning or sterilizing fog that will fill the room with and it penetrates in and kills bacteria and makes us a safer place to do complex surgeries."

The room is engineered so air flows from the ceiling to the floors and then out to the sides, keeping bacteria away from patients during surgeries.

“And we looked at the infection rate and superbugs getting more super more powerful, and how can we make a cleaner, better environment for the staff and for patients," said Ford Kellogg, CEO of Synergy Med.  

The room is also set up to collect data to improve patient care in the future — in a futuristic operating room that is already here.

“What's nice about this, this space is as a surgeon, this is a phenomenal space in which to deliver care to my patients," Dr. Rubery said.