The operating room at the Olds Hospital and Care Centre (OHCC) will now be open five days a week for surgical day procedures, instead of two and a half days.
"As a result of Alberta Health Services wanting to decrease surgical wait-lists and improve access, there was an opportunity to do a surgical expansion project, which is in partnership between Red Deer, Innisfail and Olds,î said Colleen Simon, OHCC site leader.
"We have had a Ö very well-established operating room program at Olds Hospital for about 20 years, with very modern equipment and very high standards of care. Because of that, it was easy for Alberta Health Services to choose Olds to increase surgical services.î
The surgery expansion project comes from a $16.7-million provincial government plan to increase the number of high-priority surgeries by 5,000 in Alberta.
"We want to increase our surgical cases by 963,î said Simon.
"The goal for 2012 is a total of 1,610 cases. That is approximately seven cases per operating day.î
Before the day surgery expansion project, OHCC would do about 800 surgical procedures a year.
OHCC will share its operating room with Red Deer surgeons, who will use it two days out of the week to perform general surgery, such as laparoscopic cholecystectomies, hernias and varicose vein ligations, and orthopedic surgeries, such as arthroscopies of knees, small foot procedures, and ganglion removal.
Dr. Sinclair Cox, OHCC general surgeon, will use the remaining operating room days to perform major and minor surgeries.
"Before the announcement in September, I would do surgeries three mornings a week as far as major surgeries are concerned, and I would do four or five cases every morning,î he explained.
"In addition to that, I would do what I would call minor surgeries, like carpal tunnels.î
Cox gets carpal tunnel surgery patients from Calgary, Airdrie, Innisfail, Red Deer and the local area.
"We are inundated with requests with carpal tunnels,î he said.
"For example, I did 19 cases on Dec. 19.î
A general practitioner will also use some of the operating room time to perform caesarean sections, tonsillectomies and other minor procedures.
Thanks to the increase, OHCC was able to open up eight previously closed beds in the west wing, which has now become the surgical unit.
"In addition to that, we have received hundreds of thousands of dollars of new equipment in our medical device reprocessing area,î said Simon.
"We own a lot of new, state-of-the-art sterilization and ultrasound equipment so that we are able to properly and safely sterilize the expanded volume of surgical instruments that we have.î
Meanwhile, the ophthalmology surgery program (excluding general anesthesia and pediatric procedures) will move from Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre to Innisfail Hospital and Care Centre.
Personalized care
Cox believes that the surgery program at OHCC is as good as the province's teaching hospitals, despite being smaller.
"We offer a highly personalized treatment,î he said.
"When we were building the surgery program up, we had to overcome ëbigger is better.' It's got to be better in Red Deer, Calgary and so on.î
When patients are sent to OHCC for surgery, they are treated by the same doctor throughout their stay.
"I will see them and I will be doing the surgery. I will not be delegating this to someone else,î Cox said.
Pre-admission clinic nurses, who also are operating room nurses, will then see the patients. After that, the patients will get a visit from the anesthesiologist.
"I know that does not happen elsewhere,î Cox said.
The patients will also be given a firm surgery date on their first visit.
Cox set up the surgery program at OHCC in such a way so that patients would see familiar faces on the day of the surgery and have no surprises.
Moreover, gallbladder surgery patients get to take home a video explaining the disease and the treatment, as well as a pamphlet describing the operation.
"Before I see them, they watch the video at their own pace. They read the pamphlet at their own pace,î he said.
"When I see them, I put everything into perspective for them and I add certain other information. I ask them if they have questions. I would tell you that 99.9 per cent of people say no.î
"We want to increase our surgical cases by 963. The goal for 2012 is a total of 1,610 cases. That is approximately seven cases per operating day."Colleen Simon, Olds Hospital and Care Centre site leader.
