Palmetto General Hospital recently unveiled the opening of its new “Heart Institute at Palmetto General Hospital,” which will bring the conventional operating room into the digital age.
“The Heart Institute will serve as one of the most advanced cardiac facilities in South Florida, and boast two new smart operating rooms and a leading-edge 10-bed cardiac intensive care unit,” said Ana Mederos, Palmetto General Hospitals chief executive officer.
PGH1: Dr. Romualdo “Peter” Segurola, medical director of The Heart Institute at Palmetto General Hospital, holds a model heart as he demonstrates the new technology available in the hospitals two new “Smart ORs.” Observers are pictured in one of the several interconnected, voice-activated video screens that are positioned throughout the operating room.
The two “Smart ORs,” which are the only such advanced cardiac facilities south of Tampa, are fully integrated, voice-controlled operating rooms that will provide surgeons with comprehensive access and control of critical devices along with networked digital documentation and telemedicine capabilities.
Gone are the hundreds of feet of equipment cables found in conventional cardiac ORs. Instead, these rooms are specially designed to be completely wireless for maximum efficiency and patient safety.
In addition, instead of dictating instructions to nurses, cardiac surgeons at Palmetto General Hospital will now give simple verbal commands to Sidne®, a voice-recognition network that will turn on lights, raise or lower the surgical table, instruct cameras to zoom in and out, take pictures and perform a variety of other functions.
A video screen in the upper right of the “Smart OR” focuses in to show detail of a model of a heart placed at the center of the operating table. The cameras, which are high-definition, allow the medical staff both inside the Smart OR and in the separate ICU to see detailed images of the surgery without increasing traffic, congestion and the possibility of infection within the room.
Upon completion of a surgical procedure in the “Smart OR,” Palmetto General Hospital patients will recuperate in one of Floridas most leading-edge cardiac Intensive Care Units. The 10-bed unit, with individual rooms for each patient, is wired to the ORs via television monitors so that nurses can begin preparing for a patients arrival before he/she ever leaves the operating table.
Joined by community leaders and hospital officials, Dr. Romualdo “Peter” Segurola (center left), medical director of The Heart Institute at Palmetto General Hospital, Ralph A. Aleman (center), vice president of Tenets Miami-Dade Health Network, and Ana Mederos (center right), CEO of PGH, cut the ribbon to formally open The Heart Institute at Palmetto General Hospital.
The ICU also operates on a revolutionary “universal bed” concept, whereby patients spend their entire stay in the same bed instead of facing the disruption of changing rooms and floors. Other technological features include two-way video and audio connections to allow other doctors to interact with the operating surgeon, as well as observe a variety of camera views and electronic patient data simultaneously.
