The $22.5 million surgical facility will combine the most advanced video and other communications equipment with information technology in order to enhance patient safety and operational efficiency. More than 6,000 surgical procedures are performed at NHSC each year.

"These operating rooms have been built from the ground up. They are more than twice the size of the OR’s that have been in use since the early 80’s and they bring together the latest innovations to benefit today's surgical patients in terms of the facility's design and technology," says Bill James, CEO of Northern Hospital. They can best be described as “operating rooms of the future.”

All of the new operating rooms will have advanced built-in imaging systems with mobile monitors to assist surgeons in performing a variety of minimally invasive procedures. Other monitors will give the surgical team immediate access to vital patient information, such as lab results and CT scans. "The new touch screen feature on the computer monitors is an exciting innovation. It will enable our operating room staff to instantly access diagnostic images and laboratory results for the surgeons and anesthesiologists to review," says Brian Beasley, R.N., director of Surgical Services at the hospital.

"The new equipment -- cameras, lights, monitors and various instruments -- will be part of an equipment management boom from the ceiling, in order to eliminate clutter within the operating rooms, improve patient safety and give surgeons closer and better access to images." says Beasley.

Wide-view cameras will beam images from all the operating rooms to video monitors located in a secure control room. From there, operating room coordinators will keep the OR activities running more efficiently, such as preparing the room for the next patient.

The operating rooms will have sophisticated telemedicine capability with live, two-way audio and video feeds that show views inside of tiny scopes inserted within the patient. To enhance patient safety and reduce the chance of infection, the design of the new Surgery Center has been carefully planned to include a new, state-of-the-art sterile processing department. All sterilized instruments will enter the operating rooms from one hallway and exit by a different route after they are used. A sterile storage corridor lining the center of the operating rooms will protect those supplies yet afford the surgical teams’ easy access to what they need.

In order to reduce the risk of patient exposure to airborne impurities, a special air handling system has been installed in each room that filters out microscopic impurities. The purified air comes into each operating room from the center of the ceiling, directly above the patient. Then, the air is drawn out through vents near the floor, on the perimeter of each room. "While a few other hospitals have installed some of these new technologies, we are unique in that we have tied them all together throughout the new facility," adds James.