obvious choices as flat-screen monitors and modular surgical tables.
Mr. Bowers has noticed that other pieces of equipment have slimmed
down, too, from thinner OR beds that are easier to move and maneuver,
to hysteroscopy pumps that have less heft and fewer canisters to them,
to liposuction and bipolar machines that don't take up as much space
as they used to.
You can also downsize with multipurpose equipment like an all-in-
one electrosurgical system that provides electrosurgical cutting and
coagulation, bipolar functionality and vessel sealing in a single gener-
ator. "So we only have to have 1 piece of equipment instead of 3,"
says Mr. Bowers. Then there are video towers that go up instead of
out, neatly stacking 4 or 5 pieces of equipment skyward: monitor,
shaver, light source and insufflation devices. "Moving things onto
towers and booms has helped tremendously," says Mr. Bowers of ver-
tical storage.
Booms have
replaced towers at
Eastern Idaho
Regional Medical
Center in Idaho
Falls, Idaho, where
7 of the 14 ORs
have been retrofit-
ed for booms.
"Booms are cen-
trally located in the
room, but you can
still move them to
wherever you need
to," says Melissa
Wood, BSN, RN,
the OR clinical
5 5
M A R C H 2 0 1 5 | O U T P A T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T
W
e asked a panel of 37 facility managers to name the
last piece of equipment they purchased for their
ORs that has a thinner profile or a smaller footprint
than the item it is replacing. Thinner monitors led the way.
Respondents were asked to choose all that apply.
• Monitors 59.46%
• Lights 24.32%
• Fluid management devices 24.32%
• Anesthesia equipment 21.62%
• Tables 13.51%
• Booms 10.81%
GOING SMALLER
Shopping for
Thin OR Equipment
