By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Adams Memorial Hospital (AMH) has announced that it will host a community open house next Monday, Sept. 25, to introduce its new surgical robot. The event will be held in the hospital lobby from 4-7 p.m.
Officials said the hospital “has entered a new era in patient care by launching a robotic surgery program using the da Vinci Surgical System.”
Those attending the open house will be able to watch how the robot works, how the robot assists the AMH surgeons, enjoy robot cookies, promotional items, and maybe even try to operate the robot themselves, the hospital announcement said.
Robots, of course, need a name and this one’s will be revealed at the open house.
Hospital officials invited all third and fourth graders in Adams County to assist in naming the surgical robot. The Adams Health Network (AHN) marketing team dropped off a robot coloring page at schools, asking the students to color and name the robot.
The contest began in late August and completed pictures were picked up this month. Hospital officials are currently in the process of voting on the final name. Each participating school had at least one submission in the final round.
The winner of the robot naming contest will receive a pizza party for his/her class and all participating classes will receive a coupon for a free ice cream treat.
Dr. Scott Smith, CEO and Medical Director of Adams Health Network, said he is excited to be able to offer the community this new technology as AMH is one of the few rural critical access hospitals to offer robotic surgery in Indiana. He said he looks forward to seeing how this new service will improve the recovery process and the overall outcome for AMH patients.
While the term “robotic surgery” may bring to mind the image of a robot operating on a patient, the “robot” is simply a high-tech device that is fully operated by an experienced surgeon, the hospital said in a statement.
The system enables the surgeon to view structures inside the patient’s body in very fine detail and perform delicate operations with a high degree of precision. Incisions can be smaller and the entire process less invasive than traditional surgery, the statement said.
The robot is a means of enhancing a surgeon’s skills and dexterity.
AMH physicians control the movable arms of the device while seated at a computerized console. The console gives the surgeon a high-definition, magnified, 3-D view of the surgical site. Then, using hand and finger movements, the doctor manipulates the highly specialized instruments to perform very specific functions, allowing for even the tiniest movements.
This enables the surgeon to reach and precisely alter structures deep within the patient’s abdomen through small incisions.
The robot, which is in one of the hospital’s three surgical units, is a tool that assists the hospital’s general surgeons, Dr. Jennifer Taylor, and Dr. Benjamin Hart, as well as OB/GYN, Dr. Craig Hanson.
They been extensively trained on the da Vinci system and are already seeing excellent results. The AMH physicians agree that the da Vinci system is an extension of their hands and a tool to help them in the operating room, but they control the procedure at every step.
The robot has an excellent camera and allows for superior visualization that they say they are continually amazed with, and they believe the benefits of robotic surgery will definitely be an era that extends well into the future.
The new system provides the following:
* Helps the surgeon to view fine detail inside the body (3-D view of the surgical site)
* Helps the surgeon to perform operations with a high degree of precision
* Smaller and fewer incisions
* Less invasive than traditional surgery
* Less blood loss during procedures
* Less pain during recovery
* Shorter hospital stays
* Minimal scarring
* Lower risk of infection and complications
* Better recovery times
* Better surgical outcomes
