St. Anthony’s is the third largest medical center in the St. Louis metropolitan area, and also serves families in Jefferson County, MO, and St. Clair and Munroe counties in Illinois. The system serves more than 225,000 patients a year; and the suburban communities are growing, so that number is expected to grow in the coming years. As a tertiary care facility, St. Anthony’s provides advanced medical treatment for specialties including cardiology, women’s services, oncology, orthopedics, neurology and emergency medicine. The hospital is staffed by more than 4,000 employees and is served by more than 800 physicians, dentists and other medical professionals in private practice. Our mission is to provide the best care to every patient, every day. This requires us to ensure that patient safety, continuous quality improvement and employee satisfaction are part of our culture, and that our clinical practices are true centers of excellence.

We always have been a forward-thinking healthcare provider and continually have sought the best technologies available. So, when the decision was made to build the Heart and Surgical Pavilion on our campus, we began to explore the latest surgical integration options for a planned 26-room surgical services department. Since this was going to be a significant investment for the hospital, we visited a Kansas facility to evaluate the integration technologies they already were using. This first-hand information prepared us to make educated recommendations to the surgeons and staff, who were being asked to make major changes in their surgical practices to adopt these new technologies, and who would need assurance that the changes truly would improve patient care.

Based on our evaluation, we selected STERIS Corporation’s HD360° Suite technology, including Harmony integration components, ceiling-mounted equipment management systems and LED lighting and visualization systems for the new ORs. Though immense changes such as the ones we were making can cause apprehension, the company’s professionals were there for us before, during and after the remodeling project, to assist with room planning, allay any concerns and help us learn to use the technologies. As a result, we’ve been able to make a solid transition into the future. These rooms are highly flexible because they can be set up to accommodate any type of surgery, even though some currently are being used as dedicated specialty rooms.

What’s even more remarkable is the transformation in patient care that already has resulted from the new surgical capabilities and efficiency. For example, Tom Collins, R.N., our clinical information systems manager, is impressed with the "clinical ease of use factor," saying, "the nursing staff actually can use the integration features available to them. Features such as a speakerphone, the surgical lights, inputs and video and music all can be controlled from the nurse’s documentation station. In addition, the ability to route signals and information, such as vital signs, laparoscope images, still x-rays and live camera video, directly to the sterile field leads to a sense of greater involvement for the intra-operative team, which improves patient care."

Martin Weber, R.N., clinical manager of General Surgery, said that the new integrated ORs "are light years ahead. The rooms are bright and have a more efficient layout. We use the same cameras, insufflators and cauteries as before, but they’re integrated in a new way that makes them more useful. The ceiling-mounted booms are wonderful; they remove all hazards from the floor and eliminate the need to unplug and move equipment, which speeds turnover time and has cut housekeeping time in half (no cord-wiping needed). The new LED lights give us truer color and whiter light, and they are much cooler. They’re positioned better, too – just three lightheads positioned to the left and right of the table cover the entire patient at all times, with no shadows, which is a great advantage. And the long LED lamp life is a real help; as the OR light bulb changer for the last 10 years, I can say it’s great not to have to change bulbs every day! Even better, by spending a little time with STERIS people, we learned how easy the integration systems are to use, and that they make our work easier. Each case is going faster because we can bring all the data we need up close without breaking the sterile field. We expect to be able to perform 100 or more surgeries a day (compared to about 60 today) when all 26 ORs are fully operational."

Dr. Robert Beckman, director of Trauma and general surgeon, sees many benefits for patients from the new HD 360° Suites. "Any improvements that make my work easier and better also will benefit my patients," he said. "I didn’t know how much better things could be until I operated in one of these new rooms. The LED lights are great; so much whiter and brighter than the old lights, and I have no problems with shadowing. The crisp, clear imaging we have now allows for more precise endoscopic dissections. The rooms themselves are bigger and have state-of-the-art equipment and multimedia capability that is future-ready. Their flexibility will allow us to add new technology and to perform the newest procedures as they are developed, which will continually improve care for our patients. This is the best environment I could have for surgery."

In general, the surgeons love the LED lighting and the flexible integration architecture that allows them to use their favorite scopes and devices from various endoscopy vendors in these rooms. Though major changes are hard, our staff and surgeons are willing to support this, because they’re sincerely committed to optimal patient care and they see that these improvements will provide it.

*HD360°^™ Suite and Harmony^® are registered trademarks of STERIS Corporation.