Optimum performance can only be achieved by those who can concentrate fully on their task. This applies in particular to medicine. The best possible care for patients is guaranteed when doctors and medical staff can dedicate 100% of their time to them.
The Augenzentrum Bayern is also aware of this commitment. A team comprising ophthalmologists, anaesthetists, surgical assistants and medical assistants, as well as orthoptists, opticians and ophthalmic and administrative staff from several ophthalmic clinics, centres, is working together to care for patients at various locations in Upper Bavaria. A wide range of operations is offered in a total of 6 operating theatres: cataracts, glaucoma, corneal plastics, eyelid diseases and much more. For quite some time now, there has been a desire in the network to improve the processes in the OR with regard to data access, research and documentation. "Every operation has to be documented, both under professional law and with regard to the contract of treatment," says Dr Waldemar Bauer, Medical Director at the Augenzentrum Bayern , describing the legal starting position, which is equally binding for all German doctors. "This documentation includes, among other things, surgery times, the course of anaesthesia and diagnoses, information on procedures and the surgical team," explains the Medical Director. It is no secret that the documentation process is complex and time-consuming for medical personnel. In recent years, a comprehensive image and video management system has been added to the system.
In its search for a flexible and practicable solution to relieve the workload of doctors and medical staff in the operating theatre, the Augenzentrum Bayern found support from Rein Medical GmbH.
DOCUMENTATION OF IMAGE- AND VIDEO- SUPPORTED OPERATIONS
Image- and video-supported operations make work in the OR safer and create new possibilities for documentation. However, the decisive factor here is that image and video management solutions should not only be high-performance, but also intuitively operable, because only then can they actually relieve the staff in the operating theatre. In Bavaria, they were looking for a quickly applicable solution to document all interventions by means of image recordings, which should also be able to be easily linked to the existing practice information system and the image archive (PACS).
"User-friendliness was very important to us, and the new solution should in any case be economical to purchase as well as to run," says Oliver Thieme, Technical Manager at the Augenzentrum Bayern , describing his hospital's requirements. In co-operation with the external partner, a precise requirement profile was therefore drawn up, which could then serve as the basis for the Rein Medical offer. Following the definition of the catalogue of requirements, the Mönchengladbach based company accordingly presented a proposed solution, which was agreed by the team and then commissioned for implementation.
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE FROM A SINGLE SOURCE
The solution: CLIINIO 424C touch panel PC systems and recording software SMART OR. A total of four operating theatres have already been equipped by Rein Medical, two more are in the planning stage.
With its own hardware and software, the IT service provider has provided a scalable solution that guarantees secure operation for patients and staff. "We have equipped all four operating theatres in Bavaria with our CLINIO PCs as recorder hardware and with our software for managing all image and video sources," reports Bernd Schmidtke, Head of Sales Germany at Rein Medical.
"The panel PCs receive images and videos from the cameras or microscopes in the operating theatre and store them locally," explains Bernd Schmidtke. "Selected images are then selectively transferred to the respective patient file." In addition to the pure installation, the external service provider is also responsible for adapting the interfaces to the existing image archives and to the practice information system, as well as for extensive customizing. Not only was the graphical user interface (GUI) adapted, but the responsible persons in Bavaria also implemented desired functions, such as a keyword search.
MORE TIME FOR THE PATIENTS
Bavaria is more than satisfied with the installation and, above all, with the process optimisation achieved. The solution could be used immediately by medical and assisting personnel without an induction phase, and at the same time was well received.
"The administrative expenses for our team have been drastically reduced," says Dr Waldemar Bauer, describing the biggest advantage of the new installation. "With the high number of interventions, we are performing here, the personnel no longer has to enter data manually, but can select and upload it directly from the work list," continues the Medical Director. "Everyone can access live images or archive material provided via the touch screen, and the images can also be entered directly into the patient files," says the medical director with satisfaction. By reducing the number of manual entries, the error rate at the Augenzentrum Bayern was also minimised, an equally important achievement alongside the optimised workflows.
The decisive factor, however, is that there is now more time for the essential: "The less we are busy with administrative tasks, the more time we have for our patients", says Dr Waldemar Bauer summing up the situation. In Bavaria, the equipment of the remaining two operating theatres will now be tackled, but the partner from the Lower Rhine will not be dispensed with. "We were able to rely on our contact persons at Rein Medical at all times during the project," sums up the Medical Director and his Technical Director alike. "We are very satisfied and will continue to rely on the expert support of Rein Medical medical technology in the future."
