M A R C H 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 3
It's Time to Build a Better OR
New designs should improve efficiencies and evolve with surgical care.
L
et's swing a
wrecking
ball through
today's tired ORs,
clear the rubble, and
rebuild with efficien-
cy and improved
patient care in mind.
The popular
redesign concept
over the past 50
years has been to
make rooms bigger, but that's not the way to go moving forward. I'm
part of a joint research team that includes faculty from Clemson
University and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).
We're in the process of analyzing every aspect of the current operating
room standard and reinventing the space from the ground up. Here
are some of the design enhancements we came up with.
Improved situational awareness. Team members need to be
informed of what's happening outside of their domains of care.
We're examining the optimal placement of monitors, electronic med-
ical record screens and equipment in order to improve each team
member's line of sight to the sterile field and allow them to perform a
majority of their work while facing the surgical field. I'm hopeful that
smaller EMR interfaces will be able to be positioned in the anesthe-
sia provider's line of site without blocking their view of the patient
and I believe providers will someday interact with EMRs using ges-
1
On Point
Scott T. Reeves, MD, MBA, FACC, FASE
NEW LOOK Modernized operating rooms should be constructed based on input from
surgical team members on how the room should function.
Medical
University
of
South
Carolina
