Three ambulances are headed for the hospital with victims of a multivehicle accident. A fourth ambulance is also en route carrying a 52-year-old man with chest pain. Calls come in from the EMS team, which begins streaming real-time vital signs and diagnostic information to the ED. Realizing multiple critically injured…

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A patient arrives for surgery. As soon as she checks in, she receives a wristband with a small locator tag that monitors her progress as she moves through the surgical process. Behind the scenes, the tag is signaling the surgical department’s real-time locating system (RTLS), which sends notices to OR…

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Are you considering wireless technology for tracking patients, staff, equipment, or supplies? Expert tips are offered by Rick Hampton, wireless communications manager for Partners Healthcare. The Boston-based network includes Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General, and affiliated facilities. Many hospitals are weighing decisions about these technologies, which include RTLS (real-time…

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Staff in the cardiovascular OR area of the new Sheikh Zayed clinical tower at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore will be able to locate certain equipment via computer and use a Skype-like camera system to share images of instruments and supplies with the sterile core and sterile processing unit.…

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Technology is starting to take its place as a supplement to manual counts in the effort to prevent retained surgical items (RSIs). RSIs persist despite the emphasis many ORs have placed on tightening their manual counting methods. Recent reports from California are an example of the challenge ORs are up…

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Which surgical services are likely to grow and which are likely to migrate? What is coming in new technology? If you're adding or renovating ORs, how can you plan for an "OR chassis" that will adapt to changing needs? Fred Bentley, MPP, MPH In the keynote at the OR Business…

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For the first time in the US, surgeons at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/ Columbia University Medical Center in July removed a woman's gallbladder without any external incisions. Using the technique called NOTES (natural-orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery), a team of surgeons led by Marc Bessler, MD, inserted a flexible endoscope into the…

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Radio frequency identification systems (RFID) have the potential to cause critical patient equipment to malfunction, Dutch researchers report in the June 25 JAMA The researchers tested 2 types of RFID systems in a nonclinical setting with 41 medical devices such as external pacemakers, ventilators, infusion pumps, and anesthesia devices. There…

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Removing the gallbladder through the vagina. Performing an appendectomy through the mouth. Doing an abdominal exploration through the rectum. It is a startling concept, but physicians are exploring new ways to perform surgery using the body's natural openings. Many questions remain, but researchers believe the approach holds promise of a…

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