Surgical Products - July 2014

Lauren Stamper, ORIS Product Manager, Stryker Communications: Typically, the hospitals that don’t quickly embrace OR integration either haven’t had the opportunity to see it in use or are comfortable in their current workflow. A great analogy for this mentality is the sentiment of using paper patient charts versus using the EMR. There are many benefits to an EMR solution, but to learn that system after years of using paper charts can be overwhelming at first. However, people adapt quickly and once the EMR (or integrated OR) is utilized, the benefits become tangible.

SP: What factors — above all
others — decide whether or
not a hospital can pull off OR
integration?

Larg: Obviously, you have to have the financial resources to do it effectively. Facilities need to take a close look at the level of investment based on their specific requirements, and forecast how quickly they can recoup those initial costs. Space planning, technical training, and skilled staff will of course be critical to success.

Smith: Hospital staff members may be apprehensive about new equipment or technologies that change their daily routine. Once the integration has been installed, the hospital staff needs to be in-serviced on a regular basis to make it successful. If the hospital staff will not adopt the new technology into the daily routine, the product, no matter how beneficial, will not be successful.

Stamper: Any hospital, no matter the size or type, can pull off integration within the OR. Whether a hospital’s focus is improving efficiency in room turnover or increasing staff engagement, OR integration is a key component of success.

SP: What are some common mis-
takes you see from hospitals that
undertake OR integration efforts
that fall short of expectations?

Larg: Planning your integrated OR well is paramount to achieving your long-term goals.

Having a clear understanding of how the inte-
grated OR will be utilized and shared, by var-
ious surgical disciplines and subspecialities,
will help determine exactly what equipment
needs to be inter-connected in how large a
space. The right integration technology, high-
ly qualified design partners, and leading-edge
equipment will complement a great plan.
Choose wisely.

Bream: I think a lot of program managers and a lot of project managers really push off selecting a vendor until very, very, late in the project. I’ve always told customers that whoever they go with, just pick them early. Because the earlier they can get engaged, the less change order costs will be incurred and there will be better coordination with other vendor partners. The other most common mistake – and it sounds unbelievable – is not having the right cross-functional end user team on the hospital side. Sometimes the hospital will just have capital programming do it, but they will not include the clinicians. They have these beautiful, brand-new ORs that they’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on, but the clinicians will be let down because they didn’t get a chance to voice what their true needs are.

Mann: One of the main reasons hospitals' expectations fall short is because they are improperly trained on how a system works. This is why OASYS Healthcare provides training sessions for the medical staff and ensures they are able to navigate through the system skillfully and easily.

SP: How has technology advanced to the point where OR integration is a viable option for many hospitals? What kind of technology is out there that hospitals want to invest in?

Larg: OR integration has now moved to the point where technology is very reliable, easy to install, and easy to use. Also, initial investment of newer OR integration systems such as Video-over-IP is not quite as expensive, which means many facilities can afford it, not just the best-fund-ed ones.

Jerina: It’s kind of been driven by ease of use.

The efficiency and the utilization that’s being gained by being able to centralize a lot of the control within one location. Also, with the history of this being a market and a product line that has been out for about 20 years now, it’s becoming more and more a standard of care – especially as you are starting to see more modalities.

Mann: OR integration is the only plausible way
for a surgeon to perform minimally-invasive
surgery, which has become a huge demand for
many surgeons and patients due to its faster
recovery time. The technology behind surgery
has advanced substantially throughout time. It
has arrived at the point where for surgeons would
rather watch the surgery they are performing
through a scope which leads to a HD monitor,
rather than looking at the patient while operating.
It is understood that every newly constructed/
renovated OR will be specified with OR integra-
tion as a must, and a recent study reported that by
the year 2016, 50 percent of all ORs will be fully
integrated. Other technologies that are rapidly
arising into the healthcare market are advance-
ments in robots and their capabilities.
Stamper: The modularity of OR integration has
made it viable for most hospitals. These solutions
are modular in terms of functionality and size.
They typically come with base functionality (such
as video routing) and can be expanded upon
based on the hospital’s unique needs (videocon-
ferencing for teaching purposes, video/image
capture for documentation purposes, etc.). In
an era where EMR utilization is becoming more
critical, hospitals may want to consider investing
with integration vendors that are working closely
with the EMR vendors to tie OR solutions to the
patient’s chart.

SP:How will OR integration
evolve with time?

Larg: OR integration is part of a rapidly moving technology curve that cannot be stopped. Over time, facilities can look forward to OR

SP: What factors – above all others – decide whether or not a hospital can pull off OR integration?

Andy Larg:

Facilities need to take a close look at the level of investment based on their specific requirements, and forecast how quickly they can recoup those initial costs. Space planning, technical training, and skilled staff will of course be critical to success.