Wednesday, February 22, 2006

By JEANNE RIDGWAY
Courier-Post Staff

EVESHAM
Taking a step into the future of medicine, Virtua-West Jersey Hospital, Marlton unveiled two new leading-edge operating rooms where physicians may treat patients using voice-activated equipment, two-way videos and high-definition digital imaging.

Virtua Health invested $4.3 million to build the two 600-square-foot operating rooms, and equip them with technology by Stryker, a worldwide medical services and products company headquartered in Kalamazoo, Mich.

The improvements are part of a $55 million expansion and renovation plan at the hospital. Virtua-Marlton is making itself over into a specialty hospital for surgeries and cardiac care.

Opened for use this week, the new surgical suites are among the most advanced in the Delaware Valley, according to Richard P. Miller, president and CEO of Virtua Health.

On Tuesday, the units were toured by the media and special guests.

The rooms will be used for minimally invasive endoscopic surgery, a type of surgery requiring only a small incision and the use of a scope to see the interior of the body.

These suites may accommodate surgeries of the stomach and esophagus, thyroid, prostate, kidney, lung, colon, rectum and abdominal aortic aneurysm stent repair.

"This technology is very exciting for Virtua, " said Dr. Dioscoro Villanueva, a thoracic surgeon for Virtua Health and the clinical director of surgery at Virtua's Marlton campus.

The technically advanced rooms are expected to improve overall patient outcomes, he said, by providing more precise diagnosis and quicker surgery, thereby reducing the time a patient is under anesthesia.

Virtua's new ORs provide:

Voice-activated headsets, giving physicians direct control over surgical devices and improved field of view.

A teleconference system whereby surgeons may communicate in real time with other physicians throughout the world.

A system for capturing enhanced digital images. The images may be distributed and archived, allowing multiple physicians to see them at any time, anywhere.

Connection to the hospital's pathology lab so surgeons may view specimens in pathology while patients are still in surgery.

Surgical equipment mounted on ceilings in order to free up floor space and remove trailing wires.

Other improvements under the Marlton expansion plan include an 18-bed intensive care unit, a full-service cardiac catheterization lab, and a new post-intervention care unit.

Virtua Health is a multi-hospital health-care organization employing 7,100 clinical and administrative personnel and with 1,800 physicians on staff.

It is one of the first health-care organizations to adopt the Six Sigma method, a system for improving operational efficiency. Virtua Health has also formed unique partnerships with GE Healthcare, Fox Chase Cancer Center and A.I. duPont Hospital for Children.

In Camden, Cooper University Hospital officially recognized the opening of its new state-of-the-art lab.

The new lab provides a wide range of tests and automates many functions, reducing the possibility of errors and increasing efficiencies within the hospital's laboratory system, officials said.

Cooper is the first hospital in the Delaware Valley to install this automated system, officials said.

Reach Jeanne Ridgway at (856) 486-2479 or jridgway@courierpostonline.com