A 20-year-old nursing student, Emily, was excited to be on her pediatrics rotation and taking care of Tommy, a 3-year-old leukemia patient. One day, when Tommy’s mom was out of the room, Emily asked Tommy if she could take his picture. He readily agreed. When she got home, Emily excitedly…

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Nurses texting between—or even during—cases. Anesthesia providers playing games on their cell phones. A surgeon answering calls during surgery using his Bluetooth device. Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have introduced a brand of constant communication—and a management challenge. Banning the devices isn’t the answer. Instead, health care needs to…

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Capnography—is it the standard of care for patients having moderate sedation? Should capnographic monitoring be added for procedures performed under moderate sedation in areas like the preop holding area, GI endoscopy unit, and cath lab? The issue is generating discussion following an update in the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA)…

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Video integration expert Keith Mignault looks at technology that's here now and what's on the horizon. High definition: Displays High-definition (HD) is available in most surgical scope systems and routing systems. HD has several levels, and they are not the same. For example, HD room cameras and surgical light cameras…

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Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) recently opened a new outpatient surgical suite in the Boston suburb of Danvers and will open a new 28-OR suite on its main Boston campus in 2011. Both suites employ video integration. Here's a look at the projects. 'Building for the Third Century' A new 530,000…

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In the first of this package of articles, an equipment planner offers advice on planning for OR video integration. In addition to these expert tips, the articles include: Page 17: An introduction to the new ORs at Massachusetts General Hospital Page 19: Video: What's here? What's coming? Page 21: Sharing…

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Leaders and project teams from 2 teaching hospitals with OR video integration shared lessons learned during their projects. Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston recently opened an outpatient surgical suite and will open a new 28-OR suite on its main campus in 2011. The University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB), opened…

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Sacred Heart Hospital's new MRI-equipped OR. Stainless steel doors enable the scanner also to be used for diagnostics. Sophisticated intraoperative imaging suites, with their special facility needs and high cost, are usually found in academic medical centers. But a community hospital in Wisconsin has installed an intraoperative MRI and is…

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Imagine scrubbing in for a spine case without lead aprons. Imagine taking a scan of the spine at the beginning of surgery that gives images so precise further imaging isn't needed during the case. These are advantages of the new O-shaped portable computed tomography (CT) scanners, which provide real-time 3-D…

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New high-tech scanners, once seen only in major medical centers, are making their way into more hospitals. The rapid 3-D imaging takes the OR far beyond fluoroscopy. Surgeons say they can improve results and make surgery safer. Before the patient leaves the OR, they can scan the brain to make…

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