KARL STORZ OR1^™ Operating Rooms – Now Assisting the Surgical Team at Spital Thun, Switzerland

Tuttlingen, 25.04.2018: As of October 2017, following two years of construction during ongoing hospital operation, five operating rooms that had been in use for more than 30 years have been enlarged and equipped with state-of-the-art room technology. For users, a lot has changed: The renovation of the operating rooms particularly focused on improving processes and achieved complete digitization. For instance, each operating room now features a central touchscreen through which all functions can be controlled from a central location within the operating room. At the start of a surgical procedure, the patient's electronic health record is opened, and room functions such as dim blue light as well as the medical devices are set by the push of a few buttons.

In the old operating rooms, surgery was performed in the dark to improve the visibility of endoscopic images on the monitors. This is no longer necessary thanks to the new lighting concept: Not only do the room functions ensure fatigue-free working for surgeons, but they improve the mood of the entire team.

During surgery, any image source in the OR can be displayed on the desired monitors to improve ergonomics. Subsequently, the relevant data can be stored as part of the paperless concept. Finally, the touchscreen is used to select the room settings for the "Patient transfer to recovery" stage, and the next patient's information is already called up for preparation purposes.

Documentation automatically runs in the background to ensure that complete surgery reports can be generated. Video conferencing systems that are part of the room infrastructure are used for training purposes and best practice approaches.

All new integrated operating rooms are ready for 3D and 4K imaging as well as further modules of the OR concept, which the hospital can integrate at a later time as needed.

"There is no hospital the size of Thun Spital with a comparable OR standard", concludes Marie-Anne Perrot, Communications Director at Spital STS AG.

The hospital has already been recognized for reaching Stage 6 of 7 in the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model designed to achieve a paperless environment.