Design of cardiovascular operating rooms for tomorrow's technology and clinical practice — Part 2

There is growing recognition that risks and hazards of health care associated injury and harm are a result of problems with the design of systems of care rather than poor performance by individual providers. The convergence of cardiovascular surgery and interventional imaging has resulted in new models of cardiovascular surgical suite design and new configurations of specialized surgical procedure rooms. Hybrid cardiovascular surgical procedure rooms are designed to accommodate both “open” surgery and “closed” vascular access procedures. These new rooms incorporate a variety of image-guidance modalities, are configured for surgical sterile precautions, and are designed for the use of general anesthesia. Proper design of advanced cardiovascular surgical procedure rooms requires an understanding of room configuration, surgical and anesthesia work flow, lighting and air handling requirements, surgical team culture and behavior, and human factors. Integrated medical equipment assemblies that amalgamate features of open surgical equipment, closed interventional imaging equipment and advanced medical information technology will further influence the form and function of tomorrow’s cardiovascular operating rooms.