Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, and the US military have partnered to design an operating room that will enable emergency medical teams to respond more quickly and effectively to patients with life-threatening injuries.
Physicians from Cedars-Sinai and military hospitals from the US and Europe, along with researchers from several universities, have reconfigured the operating room with movable walls and equipment for more flexible use, identified ways to eliminate disruptions during surgery and developed an iPhone app that provides diagnostic information about blood pressure and other vital signs before patients arrive in the emergency room.
“Our goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of acute trauma care in both civilian and military settings by introducing innovations in communication, technology, workflows and the way medical personnel perform their jobs,” Bruce L. Gewertz, MD, surgeon-in-chief and chair of the department of surgery at Cedars-Sinai, stated in a press release. “The quicker we get patients cared for, the better the outcomes.”
Called OR 360, the project aims to find ways to simplify the time pressures of trauma care by improving communication and teamwork among medical staff, making better use of technology and re-engineering the operating room so bulky equipment pivots effortlessly around surgical teams rather than cluttering work spaces.
“This is a new way to think about the improvement and delivery of health care,” Ken Catchpole, PhD, director of Surgical Safety and Human Factors Research at Cedars-Sinai, stated. “It’s not just about new technique or technologies or drugs, but how all those things work in unison. By putting the patients and clinicians at the center of the system, and designing everything directly for their needs, we can develop trauma care that is fast, efficient, safe and of the highest quality possible.”
