Hybrid ORs have taken time to gain momentum as facilities watched how their peers integrated the technology. Today, the watching and waiting seems to be over. Earlier this year the ECRI Institute released a report on these multimillion dollar investments, and it predicts 75 percent of cardiovascular surgeons will be working in a hybrid operating suite by 2018.

This is not a surprise, as more surgeons are starting to demand these investments in the name of better outcomes for their patients. But, the ECRI Institute reports facilities feel pressured to build one, even without surgeon support, just because that is where the industry is turning.

Because of this push, Surgical Products has compiled an overview of hybrid OR capital equipment suppliers facilities can turn to with questions about building hybrid ORs and the related equipment. If facilities do plan to build one of these, the ECRI Institute recommends team leaders:

• Solicit input from clinical and non-clinical experts from all related areas
• Perform site visits
• Select vendors early for each major system and use their expertise in room design and planning
• Consider transitions from interventional to surgical procedures and talk to all stakeholders, especially anesthesiology
• Review a final construction drawing that includes equipment with all anticipated users before signing off
• Define which procedures require a hybrid OR and which do not

This article was featured in the November/ December 2015 issue of Surgical Products. To see the complete issue, click HERE.