Christiana Care offered a glimpse into its new Hybrid Operating Room that combines surgery and advanced imaging systems.
The preview comes before the phase-in period for the center.
Kirk Garratt, M.D Christiana Care’s John H. Ammon Chair of Cardiology and medical director of the Center for Heart & Vascular Health, said the spacious area is designed to accommodate the latest advances that are minimizing invasive surgical prodedures and reducing recovery times.
The center is located at the Christiana Hospital campus near Newark.
“This new, highly sophisticated operating room is equipped with state-of-the-art technology for use in minimally invasive structural heart procedures, which are the future path for treating many heart conditions less invasively,” Garratt stated. “It will also support innovative hybrid, robotic and other advanced surgeries. These procedures reduce the risk of complications, length of hospital stay and patient recovery time.”
The operating room comes equipped with a state-of-the-art Siemens x-ray system that comes with reduced radiation when compared to past systems. Other technology, including robotics, can be brought in as as needed.
The hybrid operating room allows complicated procedures with different teams to take place, without wheeling the patient to another area or scheduling procedures at a later date.
Garratt said the hybrid operating room is designed to improve the patient experience, rather than serving as a way to improve efficiencies.
Christiana Care is moving toward a payment model that is based on outcomes, rather than fees for services.
The operating room is in the Gerret and Tatiana Copeland Heart & Vascular Interventional Suites. It is named recently dedicated in honor of the Copelands, who have given more than $3.5 million to the Center for Heart & Vascular Health to fund technology.
Wasif A. Qureshi, M.D., medical director of the Structural Heart Disease Program at Christiana Care said the operating room “provides operators the flexibility to seamlessly transition between surgical and catheter-based treatments during the same procedure, eliminating the need to move a patient or schedule multiple procedures to address a patient’s complex needs.”
The Christiana Care Center for Heart & Vascular Health integrates cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, vascular interventional radiology, cardiology and interventional nephrology in a single location and under one roof.
The Hybrid operating room is the latest in a series of heart-focused, patient-centered enhancements at Christiana Care.
Last month, the Wilmington Cardiology Care unit opened at Christiana Care’s Wilmington Hospital, offering coordinated, streamlined care for patients with cardiac diagnoses in the greater Wilmington community. The unit provides care for a range of cardiac conditions, including heart failure, at Wilmington Hospital, reducing the need for transfers to Christiana Hospital. The goal is to let patients receive care closer to home.
“For many people who live in the city of Wilmington, having high-quality heart care close to home makes a tremendous difference,” Garratt said. “It allows families to be together with their loved ones during care, and lets spouses or caregivers better balance the needs of being with their loved one in the hospital and meeting their obligations at home and work.”
Christiana Care includes a network of outpatient services, home health care, medical aid units, two hospitals (1,227 beds), a Level I trauma center and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, a comprehensive stroke center and regional centers in heart and vascular care, cancer care and women’s health. Christiana Care is a not-for-profit teaching health system with more than 260 residents and fellows.
