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locally. They can be expanded and integrated with other information
systems within the hospital. So any time surgeons want access to a
video or stills from it, they can get those outside the OR — even outside the hospital. Before, we'd store videos on either DVDs or hard
drives, which are easily lost, misplaced or damaged. Having a fully
integrated server is a much more reliable solution.
Everything in its place
Because of the nature of business here at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, the
system is on all the time. So all that happens when the circulator
walks in to begin setup is that she turns on the camera box, plugs in
the camera attached to the laparoscope and everything's ready to go.
Fine-tuning the system is intuitive: Push the endoscope button, hit the
end-light camera, tell it all to go to monitor one — and the desired
image pops up where you want it. It's seamless simplicity.
That's the first key to an integrated system — when shopping, focus
on usability and user-friendliness. Capturing high-quality video shouldn't — and needn't — add many steps to OR setup. The second key is
having a secure network. We have an information services department
at our hospital that set it up and, if you don't, I recommend requisitioning an IT/IS consultant's help.
Next, think expansion: Our integrated video system is forward-compatible, so we can expand the memory and connections to other software in the facility. You don't want to have to replace every compo9 0
O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | F E B R U A R Y 2013
