Packard Children's Opens West Coast's Most Advanced Pediatric Surg...( PALO ALTO Calif. Jan. 7 /- The su...),Health

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The surgical lights are on, the operating-room cameras rolling. Action is under way in the West Coast's most advanced pediatric surgery center, at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090107/AQW023)

The seven new operating rooms, which opened in December, provide the latest in imaging and communication technologies, allowing surgeons to operate with unprecedented precision, speed and efficiency. Every detail of the newly renovated 35,000-square-foot space, from the admitting desk to the route out of the recovery room, sets new standards in pediatric surgical care. Before, pediatric surgeries for patients at Packard Children's were done in Stanford University's adult hospital.

"There is no other children's hospital on the West Coast in which all the operating rooms are so state-of-the-art," said Craig Albanese, MD, the division chief of pediatric general surgery at Packard Children's. "It's an extraordinary facility which will help us prolong and save the lives of the most seriously ill and injured children. We'll be able to do procedures we can't even imagine yet."

The Ford Family Surgery Center can accommodate every operation from hernia repair to heart transplantation and is wired to be fully interactive. Many machines are voice-activated, freeing doctors' and nurses' hands for key tasks. Each room has high-definition monitors which display patients' vital signs, medical records, scans and x-ray images directly at the bedside, promoting safer care. Surgical lights contain cameras that can broadcast to other hospital departments, allowing surgeons to videoconference with pathologists and radiologists without leaving the patient. Surgeons will also be able to share expert opinion
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