Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and the U.S. Military are collaborating to design the "operating room of the future," a project to reconfigure operating rooms and trauma bays to more quickly and effectively respond to patients with serious injuries.
"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," said Bruce Gewertz, MD, surgeon-in-chief and chair of the department of surgery at Cedars-Sinai, in a news release.
The project, called OR 360, will incorporate elements that "simplify the time-pressured nature of trauma care," according to the news release.
Such innovations include color-coding trauma bays to allow providers to locate tools more quickly, developing an app that aggregates patient diagnostic data in one place accessible to all providers, conducting pre-briefings before patients arrive in a trauma bay and redesigning operating rooms to have movable walls and equipment for more flexible use and to eliminate distractions during surgery.
The U.S. Department of Defense granted $3.8 million to OR 360, and researchers have collaborated with military medical center personnel in the U.S. and Europe.
"This is a new way to think about the improvement and delivery of healthcare," said Ken Catchpole, PhD, director of surgical safety and human factors research at Cedars-Sinai, in the news release. "It's not just about new techniques 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 for the 21st century that is fast, efficient, safe and of the highest quality possible."
More Articles on Capacity Management:
What Kind of Patients do You See in Your Emergency Department?
Top 10 Factors to Consider When Building a Freestanding Emergency Department
8 Statistics on Hospital Capacity