Editor's Note
Robotic surgery can improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and improve efficiencies and turnover time, but only if it’s done right. In a conference session yesterday, Michelle Toder, MD offered insights, best practices, and lessons learned during two decades of experience in pioneering robotic applications in weight loss and other bariatric surgeries.
Toder is clinical lead, computer assisted surgery program at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center. After bringing in the first robots two decades ago, the OR was “a mess,” she says cluttered with a “mindboggling” amount of equipment supporting the robot. Today, it’s a “clean, neat setup,” and there are no more worries about robotic surgery slowing throughput. Concerns about differences in quality and increased costs also haven’t panned out. In fact, the medical center has experienced the opposite. Reasons for this include:
The results speak for themselves. Overall, the medical center has performed more than 11,000 procedures since 2004. At 95%, 75%, and 94%, respectively, adoption in bariatrics, hernia and foregut exceeds national averages. Robotic hernia adoption climbed from 23% in 2018 to nearly 80% in 2022.
Additional revenue is another benefit, with outpatient robotic inguinal hernia payments roughly $4,000 higher than open. That figure climbs to $5,000 higher for outpatient robotic ventral hernia procedures. The center is also outperforming national averages for community hospitals in OR time, throughput, conversions, and readmission rates.
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