4 6 S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E M A R C H 2 0 1 7
beginning stages, you're looking to answer one fundamental question: "What do
we want from this building?"
From a perioperative services perspective, we started by defining the number
of ORs we needed, based on projected volume, and then determined how to sup-
port those ORs in terms of pre-op rooms, PACUs, clean utility rooms and scrub
sinks. At the same time, we began examining how to incorporate OR integration
into the design.
2. Plan ahead
By considering all the procedures we were already doing and imagining what
kinds of procedures we would be doing 5, 10 and even 20 years into the future,
we forced ourselves to ask many more questions: Could we use room-to-room
HD image routing to improve surgeons' decision-making? Would every OR need
to be robot compatible? Could we benefit from illustrative types of equipment,
like whiteboards and high-resolution touch-screen displays? Would surgeons
like the ability to use hands-free technology to consult with a colleague or
adjust room settings while in the middle of a case? Could we use telepathology
to improve patient care both in and out of the OR?
The goal of OR integration is to give surgeons the tools they need to provide the
best possible care, even beyond the OR. For example, we can now route surgical
images and video out to consult rooms, so surgeons can have those visuals at
their disposal when speaking with a patient's family after surgery.
Telepathology is another example. In a non-integrated OR, you'd have to send
specimens out to the pathology lab for assessment. The surgeon would then
have to leave the sterile field to talk to pathology over the phone before scrub-
bing back in to make his cuts and check the margins. The same sequence would
be repeated as many times as necessary until the margins are clear, likely
extending the surgery and increasing the likelihood of contamination.
With an integrated OR, the surgeon can stay in the sterile field while patholo-
gy orients the specimen and digitally routes the results back to the OR, where
