Fewer Infections – thanks to ISE™

The problem of hospital-acquired infections is a growing one as hospitals over 10 years old become colonized with so-called “Super Bugs,” and the increasing prevalence of superbugs (such as MRSA) in the community, and the widespread usage of antibiotics, result in an increasing number of infections in healthcare facilities.

In the operating room, this has been a rapidly expanding. In the US alone the number has grown from approximately 99,000 in 2005, to 157,000 as reported this year by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), an increase in 63% in only 10 years!

Also the relative percentage of surgical infections that are due to resistant organisms has been climbing, resulting in a worsening of outcomes and an increase in the cost of caring for these patients.

Optimus Ozone System

The Optimus ISE is the first operating room that is fully sterilizable, utilizing the Optimus ozone system. Once a week the room and ozone-compliant devices are exposed to ozone for one hour, resulting in an operating room that, for the first time, can be considered sterile.

Optimus Solid Surfaces TiO2 Wall Cladding System

Solid surfaces are non-porous, and therefore do not hide bacteria and fungal spores in microscopic porosities. Optimus has combined nanoparticle photo-active titanium dioxide to the material of the solid surface, resulting in a wall cladding system that essentially sanitizes itself.

Optimus UV Sink Trap

Utilizing UV-C lighting diodes, the Optimus UV Sink Trap is capable of eliminating potential sources of aerosolized contamination in sink traps in the operating room, recovery rooms and intensive care unit.

“Floor Genie” 

The Optimus Floor Genie is a robotic floor cleaner, with disposable cartridges for complete isolation of contaminated materials, that is deployed after an operation has been completed, and works while the nursing staff is preparing the room for the next procedure.

Safer Environment – thanks to ISE™

Safety by Design

As a system grows in complexity, the need to simplify increases proportionally.

“Safety by design” builds automatic excellence into the infrastructure of the operating room so that surgical staff are freed to concentrate on the problem at hand. Safety by design is utilized in the aerospace and airline industries intensively, as well in the automotive and industrial design fields. Optimus believes that it is time for the healthcare industry to emulate these principles as well, for the benefit and well-being of both patients and staff.

The logical design approach applied to the Integrated Surgical Environment has been since inception based on the following observation:

If a risk event is not there, it cannot occur

The concept of “safety by design” employs a logical approach to avoid problems that beset the modern operating room.

Just a few examples are:

• If there are no wires and hoses on the floor no one will trip over them, or inadvertently disconnect equipment and disrupt the surgeon’s activities
• If there is no X-ray box in the room, then an X-ray cannot be put up backwards, and wrong-site surgery events can be avoided by the surgical staff
• If there is nothing hanging from the ceiling, then line-of site will never be interfered with
• If there is nothing hanging from the ceiling, then the staff will never shake infected dust onto the surgical site and cause an inadvertent surgical site infection
• If the circulating nurse never has to leave the room to search for surgical supplies, then the surgeon will always have help when a complication occurs
• If the need to come into the room by outside staff is eliminated (pass-through supply cabinets, large room size), then the chance for bringing infectious materials or disrupting surgical activities and surgeon concentration are avoided
• If locating surgical supplies is instantaneous, then delay-of-case complications can be avoided
• If the room can be sterilized, then concerns for contamination of surfaces by superbugs can be eliminated

Calmer Environment – thanks to ISE™

The operating room, by its very nature, can be one of the most stressful environments to work in. Creating what we call an “Environment of Calm and Confidence” is one of the key goals of the Optimus design philosophy. By combining variable ambient solid-state lighting, improved ergonomics in the central area of surgical focus, and an overall simplification of the environment, Optimus has achieved an operating room that exudes a sense of calm and confidence for both the patient and surgical staff.

The Optimus ISE has been likened to the “Apple” of the operating room for its clean look and feel and clutter-free environment.

Benefits of and environment of calm and confidence include:

FOR THE STAFF

• Improved work quality of surgical and support staff
• Improved sense of well being
• Decreased cumulative fatigue
• Fewer interruptions resulting in better concentration by the team
• Far less clutter with straight line-of-sight in all directions
• Fewer medical errors due to inadvertent tripping, disconnecting or bumping into wires, hoses and ceiling hardware

• reduced anxiety and potentially reduced need for anesthetics, especially during awake surgery
• a positive surgical experience

• lessened liability
• improved competitive advantage
• better chance to attract top surgeons, nurses and surgical support staff

Higher Efficiency – thanks to ISE™

At the heart of Optimus’ value proposition for the ISE is greatly improved efficiency. All combined, these improved efficiencies help the hospital by:

• Reducing the time for return on its healthcare facility’s capital operating room sector investment
• Reversing the trend and reducing the operating room sector’s operating costs
• Improving daily patient throughput
  • Reduced time-to-find (pass-through RFID supply cabinets)
  • Fixed turnover time at 12 minutes (robotic Floor Genie)
  • Shortened time-to-wake after anaesthesia (warming pad system)
  • Fewer “On Hold” delays in the recovery room (“Air Traffic Control”)
• Streamlining workflow patterns (Systems Approach)
• Controlling vendor costs and cost for equipment service contracts (Systems Approach)

Combined into a holistic system for a hospital’s operating room sector, the financial impact is tremendous.

Improved Financial Performance – thanks to ISE™

The impact of a Systems Approach, higher efficiencies, better working environment, streamlining of workflow, and a decrease in medical errors and surgical site infections, combine to allow the modern hospital to realize greatly improved sustainability over the next 10 – 20 years. Especially in the face of decreasing re-imbursements and growing impact of healthcare in general on a nation’s GDP.