The president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, inaugurated the new Surgical Block of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital. The new facilities, the leading technology and the change in management by processes will allow for new surgical techniques, and improve patient safety and the work of professionals.
Accompanied by the Minister of Health, Toni Comín, and the director of the Institut Català de la Salut, Dr. Candela Calle, the president went across the 150 meters corridor of the new Surgical Block, operating at full capacity since mid-September. In the block, all surgeries that were previously carried out on various floors of the General Hospital will now take place in the same space. During the visit, the director of VHIR, Dr. Joan Comella, gave the president a "Friend of VHIR" badge and a lithograph of one of the winning images of the Scientific Photography Contest.
After the visit, the official opening ceremony took place, in which Puigdemont thanked on the one hand the professionals and previous governments for making it possible to inaugurate today the Surgical Block, and on the other hand, the patience they all have had, after more than 10 years since the gestation of the project. "All this would not have been possible without the great health professionals we have in our country and the unconditional effort being made by the collective against the lack of funding", said Carles Puigdemont. The president has put the new Surgical Block as an example of the willingness of the Catalan government when it comes to "provide Catalonia with the tools of a country to better serve the highest quality, with no limits to our ambition and available to everyone".
The manager of the University Hospital Vall d'Hebron, Dr. Vincenç Martínez Ibáñez, also wanted to thank the health professionals, the president, the councilman and the Institut Català de la Salut, all the way round to get "one of the best surgical blocks of Europe and, therefore, of the world". Ibáñez Martínez explained that the new facilities, equipment and new processes "allow us to go further and seize new opportunities to become even more powerful and remain at the forefront of medicine".
The latest technology in the service of the patient
The new Surgical Block represents a technological leap that places the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in front internationally. Professionals have the latest technology that they demanded and agreed on, and which helps to improve accuracy, and to reduce intervention time and the postoperative period, as new techniques are becoming less invasive.
In total, the block has 19 operating rooms fully equipped for highly complex surgeries. Among the new technology are included, neurosurgery navigation systems , 3D imaging system, integrated ultrasound and the new Da Vinci Xi robot. In addition, we have introduced two hybrid operating rooms, equipped with surgical radiological arches, to see live, for example, the result of specific interventions, without having to move the patient to the radiology room (which was always outside the operating room).
All this technology will allow to perform new techniques, such as cerebral endovascular surgery, transoral and transumbilical robotic surgery, and robotic surgery techniques in thoracic and cardiac operations.
The operating rooms have been designed to optimize the space and time of commissioning. Therefore, all necessary equipment, screens, lamps and connection points are hanging from the ceiling, through a system of electronic vertical holding. In addition, each professional can set the operating room as they want and according the type of intervention, so that when the specialist arrives, simply has to select their profile, and in few seconds everything is set to the position that was predetermined.
New work processes, patient-centred
Besides the equipment, the implementation of the facility has served to introduce new work processes, with the aim of improving the internal functioning and security that is provided to the patient. To exploit the potential of the new space and adapt to the needs of the most advanced surgeries, the working methods of the professionals involved were redesigned, agreeing measures in various committees, with the participation of different groups.
One of the key points of the new organization has been the instrumental management change to implement a new computer traceability system. To make this possible, it was necessary to inventory 25,000 pieces of instrumental material. Thus, professionals can know at all times what material has been used to operate each patient, and at what part of the process (washing, disinfection, assembly, storage or transfer).
To facilitate the distribution of the material, the new Surgical Block incorporates a 1,000m2 robotized cabinet, which distributes all necessary material for each intervention. Unlike before, professionals no longer have to take the material they need for each surgical procedure from the storeroom, but select the appropriate package for each type of intervention (which will have been previously programmed).
Apart from the operating rooms, the Surgical Block includes two rooms for patient care before and after being subjected to an intervention in the recommended cases. This space, called Pre and Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU), aims to optimize the use of the surgical area, because until now, patients were put to sleep and woken up in the operating room. In the PACU not only work anesthesiology staff, but also nurses.
Surgical interventions at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital
The Surgical Block starts with the objective of performing about 8,000 intervention every year, the same that were made last year in the General Hospital. The centre's goal is to increase the number of interventions in the Surgical Block in the future, thanks to the improvement of processes and technology, which will result in the reduction of intervention times and stay of patients in the hospital.
In addition to the new operating rooms of the Surgical Block at the General Hospital, the Vall d'Hebron Hospital has 14 operating rooms in the Hospital of Traumatology and Rehabilitation, 11 operating rooms in the Maternal and Child Hospital and 6 operating rooms in the Pere Virgili Health Complex. In total, counting the programmed, emergency and outpatient interventions, last year 36,000 major surgeries were made in the Vall d'Hebron Campus; 1 in 3 of all those made in the centres of the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS).
The block in figures
◦ 3rd floor: 3,000m2
◦ 4th floor (ORs area): 3,000m2
◦ 5th floor: 3,000m2
◦ Vertical core: 1000m2
Chronology
The construction project of the Surgical Block began in 2005, given the need to update, streamline and reorganize the surgical areas of the General Hospital. Work began in March 2006, and until 2013 did not begin to acquire equipment.
As for the organizational management, the project has had the participation of a multidisciplinary team made up of professionals from all areas involved.
For 2017 the new Critical Care Unit is scheduled to be operational, located on the 3rd Floor of the Surgical Block, with 26 treatment points, and the new Rehabilitation Unit, which will have 20 boxes for patients who do not make the postoperative at the PACU.
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