Vim & Vigor - Fall 2017 - Community Healthcare - 53

Construction of the hybrid surgical suite
at Community Hospital enables both
traditional open chest and minimally
invasive cardiac procedures, such as
transcatheter aortic valve replacement
(TAVR), and neuro endovascular
procedures, those used to treat brain
aneurysms and stroke.

* Construction of four new fully integrated operating suites for complex
neurosurgery, spine surgery and orthopedic procedures
* Remodeled surgical admission and
post-anesthesia care units and a surgical
holding room
"The fully integrated hybrid operating suite allows our surgeons to
perform a wider variety of minimally
invasive procedures than before and
to care for patients who previously
would not be able to tolerate a major
surgery," says Richard Berkowitz, MD,
medical director of Anesthesiology,
Pain Management and Peri-operative
Services. "For example, our specially
trained cardiovascular team is using
minimally invasive cardiac procedures,
including transcatheter aortic valve

replacement, or TAVR, for structural
heart valve disease. This approach is
preferable for patients who are weak,
fragile or have co-conditions and would
not be considered ideal candidates for
a traditional open chest surgery."
Through minimally invasive techniques
such as TAVR, patients can benefit from
shorter hospital stays, smaller surgical incisions with less scar tissue and less trauma
to the body. Other benefits include less
pain and blood loss and a reduced risk
of infection. These patients typically also
have a quicker return to normal activities.
"The rooms are designed to allow
for flexibility of equipment placement,
ease of use and accessibility for surgeons and staff," says John Olmstead,
RN, director of Surgical Services. "These
design elements allow us to adapt our
operating rooms to a variety of procedures and future technologies as well."
For example, new operating room
lighting uses robotic focus. This feature
provides sharper visualization of the
surgical field without glare or shadow
and produces 25 percent more light
for surgeons.

The OR hybrid room at Community Hospital features special lighting and multiple
monitors for enhanced viewing of images during a procedure.

WEBSITE

Advanced
Surgical Options
For more information about
the quality care and advances
in surgical technology found
at Community Hospital in
Munster, visit www.comhs.org.

Using advanced video integration
technology, surgeons and anesthesiologists can view multiple forms of
information simultaneously, including blood pressures inside the body,
radiology images, as well as patient
vital signs and images taken prior
to surgery. Previously, this information was accessed and viewed from a
single monitor.
"Each surgeon can maintain a library
of images for a particular patient's
procedure," explains Berkowitz. "By
accessing the library immediately following surgery, he or she can more easily
show the patient's family images from an
iPad or computer. We no longer need to
wait for hard copies."
"These new video capabilities also
enable us to more easily provide learning opportunities to medical school
partners," he says. "Physicians can
present 'live' observations via satellite
video feed to medical students and colleagues, similar to 'operative theatres'
in a teaching hospital setting."
The redesigned department layout
also includes 16 post-anesthesia care
unit beds, expanded from the previous 10 beds. In addition, 27 surgical
procedure beds have been included to
accommodate an increase in same-day
surgery capabilities. ■

FALL 2017

53
http://www.comhs.org
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