Care Package

Text:/ Derek Powell

THEATRE OF OPERATIONS

There are four operating theatres at MCH and naturally, the surgeons were anxious to ensure the AV systems met all their needs. CHW ran a series of workshops with the surgeons and the Biotechnology Manager to determine the functional requirements and then put these systems out to a separate tender process which included specialist biomedical suppliers as well as AV integrators. “ENGIE AV put forward a Crestron solution which is all TGA-certified and it was a proven solution because it was the same solution they’d deployed in Bendigo Hospital,” Manoje recalled. “It ticked all the boxes, met all their requirements and was far more cost effective than any of the other solutions put forward.”

Fibre is generally the best solution for equipment that must be mounted in the sterile zone on the various pendants which surround the operating table. Fibre not only provides the necessary electrical isolation, but is also compact enough to fit inside the pendants.

SURGICAL GRADE

ENGIE AV has made health a specialty and Cameron noted that there are many more considerations in working on AV for an operating theatre: “Even getting down to cable rough in, there’s additional things to think about because you need to seal cables in walls to ensure the space remains pressurised. When you are choosing connector outlets, you need to think about the ability to clean in the theatres and there’s quite a number of considerations that go into body protection, making sure all metal surfaces are appropriately earthed. If you’ve got audiovisual connectors with exposed metal, all of those exposed parts need to be earthed.”

All the operating theatres operate identically with four large monitors plus two more which are predominantly used for videoconferencing. A wall-mounted camera sits between the VC monitors while another camera provides a bird’s eye view of the theatre and the bed. Dedicated feeds are available from the endoscopic camera as well as the theatre light pendant camera and from ports on the pendant arm.

AUTO SENSING MACHINES

ENGIE AV’s recent experience with Victorian hospitals again proved its worth in the tricky area of the control systems. Operating theatres are multi-user environments where different kinds of mobile equipment are constantly wheeled in or out to cater for specialised procedures. On previous projects, they developed a system that simplifies the touch panel and makes it easier for theatre staff to route new video sources accurately.

“As individual pieces of equipment are brought in, their AV outlets are plugged into connections on the surgical pendants,” Cameron explained. “When they are plugged into the pendant, the Crestron system ‘sees’ that piece of equipment and from its unique ID knows that it is, for example, an anesthetic machine and shows on the touch panel an anesthetic machine as a source that can be displayed on the system and recorded as well.”

Cameron explained the choice of equipment in the theatres. “We’ve used NEC monitors throughout the installation, in the meeting rooms and on the walls in the theatres. We find that NEC has a good product, it’s extremely reliable and certainly works well in a medical environment. On the pendants themselves, in the vicinity of the surgeon and their assistant, we’ve used Sony medical monitors – they are smaller, 27-inch monitors that can be moved into position so that the surgeon can see them.”

Of particular interest is the recording system which is the first Australian deployment of the Sony Medical Content Management System (CMS). The system was chosen for its ability to automatically integrate the patient’s Electronic Medical Records. As procedures are recorded, the CMS automatically downloads information on the patient and the procedure from a database, embeds it into the video and places the video into the patient’s file.

CONSISTENT CARE

The positive outcome from this project has prompted Monash Health look towards establishing a standard for their audiovisual services that can achieve a consistent support experience for their users. “Standardising on Crestron helped them simplify a lot of the problems they’ve previously experienced, and having Crestron Fusion as an assets management system also helped them proactively manage their help desk as well as maintenance and servicing,” Manoje noted. “I’ve got feedback from them that they’re really finding that beneficial.”

“They are deploying that strategy across their newer projects,” he added. “At Casey Hospital in Berwick they’ve asked us to follow the same philosophy and ensure everything is integrated onto Crestron Fusion so they can manage it centrally from Clayton. I think that was one of the success stories out of this project.”

CHW sees the result of Monash Children Hospital’s technology investment as a simplification of the complex hospital environment and an enhancement of the facility’s ability to care for Australia’s youngest patients. They regard the keys to success as CHW Consulting and ENGIE AV Technologies focus on their stakeholder engagement process and both company’s expertise in the health sector. Importantly, though, Monash Children’s Hospital is set to benefit from a system which will be used for years to come and will add value to the clinician and patient experience at the hospital.