ture movements instead of keyboards.
Better communication. Patient monitors are typically placed at
the head of the table, but current technology allows for project-
ing clinical data onto large plasma screens hung throughout the OR.
Ultra high-definition video monitors feature touchscreen technology
and are getting bigger, which allows for a tiled view of clinical data,
radiology images and the laparoscopic or arthroscopic view of sur-
gery. Integrated ORs help keep every member of surgical team
informed and engaged in the case, no matter where they're working
or watching from.
Room reconfiguration. The optimal size of an outpatient OR is
about 600 square feet. Corners of the room become dead spaces
when the table is placed in the center of the room, but angling the
table and placing the anesthesia workstation in a corner frees up a
tremendous amount of real estate at the foot of the table and along
the right side of the room.
Future flexibility. We're trying to create standardized and ver-
satile rooms that can be redesigned over time without having
to pay for and endure multimillion dollar renovations. For example,
booms can be hung from steel grids housed in ceilings. The booms
would be stationary, but not permanent, and could be repositioned
and fixed in different parts of a room in just a couple hours. If the
steel grids are housed in a linear fashion above a series of standard-
ized ORs, walls could be removed to expand the spaces and booms
could be repositioned to accommodate larger technologies.
Building ORs against outside walls lets architects incorporate plenty
of natural light in their designs. It also means exterior walls can be
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