Expanded operating rooms improve efficiency

One of the newly renovated cardiovascular operating rooms at Cookeville Regional Medical Center that opened earlier this spring.

COOKEVILLE – It’s been a few months since work wrapped on one of Cookeville Regional Medical Center’s most recent construction projects – two newly renovated cardiovascular operating rooms.

Earlier this spring, the hospital opened the new, $3 million cardiovascular operating rooms; units that the staff says were much-needed and are helping the staff provide the best, most efficient care possible.

The new state-of-the-art rooms took the place of two previous rooms that each totaled about 500 square feet. An ever-shrinking work area combined with ever-evolving equipment needs made the need for larger, updated operating rooms clear.

“With today’s equipment needs in the OR, they need much more space,” Paul Korth, CRMC CEO said.

The new rooms are larger, offering approximately 100 additional square feet compared to the previous rooms with one room offering 600 square feet and the other offering 700 square feet.

The new, larger space also allows for room to comfortably perform stent graft procedures, a common procedure for aortic aneurysm patients; devices which require about six feet in length to insert. With the patient’s height added to that length, and the remainder of the space holding surgical tools and monitoring equipment, space in the old operating rooms filled quickly.

“Our experience is broad but our facility just got a lot better,” said Dr. Lewis Wilson, cardiothoracic surgeon.

The expanded space also allows for more observation opportunities for the surgical team as well as area nursing students.

“The monitoring is much better,” Wilson said. “Everywhere you look, there’s a TV screen.”

The Heart & Vascular Center at Cookeville Regional is the only level-three accredited chest pain center in the Upper Cumberland awarded by the Society of Chest Pain Centers.

“Cardiovascular services here, in our facility, are one of our top service lines that we have,” said Korth. “We have a very strong cardiology program along with the cardiovascular surgery program – it takes both to be a great program together.”

Since 1994, close to 31,000 heart catheterizations have been performed, along with over 4,100 open-heart surgeries and a full range of countless other cardiac and vascular procedures and services.

Amye Anderson is the managing editor of the Upper Cumberland Business Journal and can be reached via email. Send an email.

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