VA New England Healthcare System
New OR Modernization Enhances Patient Safety
Dr. Kamal Itani, Chief of Surgical Service, VA Boston Healthcare System, right, demonstrates the use and functionality of VA Boston’s new Hybrid Operating Room to Vincent Ng, Director of VA Boston Healthcare System, left, and Dr. Michael Charness, Chief of Staff.
BOSTON - Modernization is often a term used in association with new beginnings, innovative technology and streamlining processes. Now it’s a term VA Boston Healthcare System is embracing to describe advancements made in Veteran Healthcare by focusing on big, bold actions based on the needs and experiences of our Veterans.
As part of our cultural shift in putting Veterans at the center of all of our decisions, VA Boston recently opened a new, state-of-the-art Hybrid Operating Room (O.R.) at the West Roxbury campus. The O.R. discussion began approximately seven years ago and now the 1000 square foot, 5.8 million dollar design-to-build model is the first of its kind in the VA New England Healthcare System.
“We will be able to offer very advanced procedures to our Veteran patients hopefully from all over New England, but maybe from elsewhere within the country,” said Dr. Kamal Itani, Chief of Surgical Service, VA Boston Healthcare System.
The Hybrid O.R. involves using a multispecialty approach to caring for Veterans. Particularly, the O.R. uses advanced radiological imaging equipment and combines that imaging with cutting edge surgery. Providing this technology to the O.R. greatly reduces potentially harmful exposure to radiation for both the patient and the medical team.
“This is a very important modernization project and it is going to provide us with additional tools that didn’t used to be available to us,” said Itani.
According to Itani, the new O.R. will help patients to recover quicker and will also allow the surgery team to perform very technologically advanced operations with fewer incisions on the patient’s body.
The VA wants Veterans to choose VA because we provide the best care and services available. The only way to achieve this is by modernizing; propelling VA forward, implementing solutions to the challenges we face and improving our performance by changing the way we do business. Veterans have been telling us what services are important to them and at VA Boston Healthcare System we are listening and incorporating that information into our day to day processes and our planning for the future of health care.
