More efficiency and ergonomics in Heidelberg operating rooms

Richard Wolf has equipped six operating rooms at Salem Hospital with the advanced core Operating Room Management System

Heidelberg, 24. February 2011 - Medical technology company Richard Wolf has equipped six operating rooms at Salem Hospital with the advanced core Operating Room Management System

Salem Hospital in Heidelberg rolled out six newly built operating rooms at the beginning of the year. Each of the new operating rooms was equipped with an advanced Operating Room Management System which will make workflows more efficient in the operating room and improve ergonomic conditions for surgeons and support staff. After extensive discussions of the packages on offer from different manufacturers, the executive management, surgeons, and nursing staff decided on the “core” Operating Room Management System from medical instrument company Richard Wolf. Salem Hospital has now joined around 400 hospitals in more than 20 countries across the world which are working with core.

“core represents `Complete Operating Room Endoscopy´. The `Heart´ of core is equipment control using the touchscreen monitor and voice control which allows the surgeon in the operating room to operate all the equipment in the room – from the operating table, through HF equipment, to endoscopic units – independently and centrally. This extends to being in a position to regulate the lighting conditions in the operating room by issuing commands into the headset so that the lighting conforms to the surgeon’s requirements for each specific operating situation,” according to Timo Haller, Head of Integrated Operating Room Systems at Richard Wolf. Equipment control can be optionally supplemented by monitors to present pre-operative information, such as computer-tomography images and X-rays, as well as live images from the camera recording the operation.

Dr. Moritz von Frankenberg, Deputy Chief Physician of Surgery at Salem Hospital is particularly fascinated by the extensive opportunities presented by the recording function: “If complications occur I can immediately give a specialist access to the live camera image – irrespective of whether he is sitting in his office or at a conference in New York.  At a glance, he can see everything necessary on and in the patient across the Internet using his laptop.”

Surgeons and nursing staff like the new technology because it significantly simplifies workflows in the operating room. They are also impressed with the sophisticated ergonomic design of the system. The surgeon carrying out the operation can display the live images provided by the camera used in the operation on one of the numerous monitors to give himself the most comfortable working position.

The units controlled by core can be purchased from Richard Wolf but this does not have to be the case. This is because around 40 items of equipment from other manufacturers are compatible with this system. As far as Jürgen Unrath, Managing Director of Salem Hospital is concerned, the compatibility of core was the key argument for selecting this Operating Room Management System: “At our hospital in Heidelberg, we were able to integrate the existing operating tables, operating lamps and cameras, HF equipment and ceiling mounts in the new Operating Room Management System. This went very smoothly without any problems and the first operations were carried out in the six operating rooms four weeks after installation work on the management system started.”

PRESS CONTACT:

Richard Wolf GmbH    
INTEGRATED OR SYSTEMS     

Axel Keller             
Pforzheimer Str. 32    
DE-75438 Knittlingen
Germany

Fax:    +49 (0) 7043 35-300
Tel.:     +49 (0) 7043 35-447
Email:        axel.keller@richard-wolf.com
Internet:    www.richard-wolf.com/core