ECRI offers OR integration advice
Although it may be difficult to quantify return on investment in integrating ORs, possible benefits include reducing medical errors, attracting or retaining competent OR personnel, improving OR efficiency and providing new educational tools, according to a white paper released July 25 by ECRI Institute.
The white paper defines and examines three hospital scenarios for integrating operating rooms (ORs):
The non-profit organization includes costs associated with each scenario and the vendors in which hospitals are interested.
Integrated ORs enable surgical staff to control audio and video signal routing from a central location in the OR, according to ECRI Institute. Devices include cameras, video display monitors and C-arm signals, which could potentially feed information to nurse scheduling stations and other locations for educational purposes.
“Because of limited capital investment resources, the numerous requests for integrated operating rooms have created a real C-Suite challenge,” said Jennifer Myers, vice president of Select Health Technology Services at ECRI Institute, in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. “Not only are the configuration options seemingly endless, but it is difficult to identify a quantifiable ROI [return on investment].”
Modernization of a general OR may include routing video and audio sources to flat-panel displays and speakers, which offers centralized control of clinical devices, according to the Institute. Integrating a specialty OR may include in-room integration as well as routing video and audio sources to locations outside the OR. A state-of-the-art facility might include an extended system with enhanced features, such as remote access, IP video networking, room observation and others.
The paper describes three different types of vendors—surgical video, audio/visual and medical/surgical—and the market interest and pricing as shown by 2,500 ECRI members. For each of the three scenarios, hospitals purchased more than 60 percent of their equipment from surgical video vendors, according to the paper. Overall member interest favored Karl Storz among surgical video vendors.
For hospitals looking to integrate their ORs, ECRI recommends six cost-saving tips:
The white paper can be downloaded here.
The white paper defines and examines three hospital scenarios for integrating operating rooms (ORs):
- modernizing a general OR;
- integrating a specialty OR; and
- building a state-of-the-art OR
The non-profit organization includes costs associated with each scenario and the vendors in which hospitals are interested.
Integrated ORs enable surgical staff to control audio and video signal routing from a central location in the OR, according to ECRI Institute. Devices include cameras, video display monitors and C-arm signals, which could potentially feed information to nurse scheduling stations and other locations for educational purposes.
“Because of limited capital investment resources, the numerous requests for integrated operating rooms have created a real C-Suite challenge,” said Jennifer Myers, vice president of Select Health Technology Services at ECRI Institute, in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. “Not only are the configuration options seemingly endless, but it is difficult to identify a quantifiable ROI [return on investment].”
Modernization of a general OR may include routing video and audio sources to flat-panel displays and speakers, which offers centralized control of clinical devices, according to the Institute. Integrating a specialty OR may include in-room integration as well as routing video and audio sources to locations outside the OR. A state-of-the-art facility might include an extended system with enhanced features, such as remote access, IP video networking, room observation and others.
The paper describes three different types of vendors—surgical video, audio/visual and medical/surgical—and the market interest and pricing as shown by 2,500 ECRI members. For each of the three scenarios, hospitals purchased more than 60 percent of their equipment from surgical video vendors, according to the paper. Overall member interest favored Karl Storz among surgical video vendors.
For hospitals looking to integrate their ORs, ECRI recommends six cost-saving tips:
- Purchase your wall-mounted displays from a local video equipment retailer.
- Keep room status monitoring separate from OR integration system.
- Don’t use the integration system to control room lighting.
- Don’t use the integration system to control surgical lighting either.
- Don’t use the integration system to control HVAC.
- Don’t use the integration system for audio communications.
The white paper can be downloaded here.