New hybrid operating room expands Salisbury VA’s Veteran care capabilities
In summer 2024, the Salisbury VA surgery service opened its new hybrid interventional operating room (OR) suite, which supports providers with new operating equipment to take Veteran care to the next level and provide the most comprehensive surgical continuum of care at VA.
Located at the W.G. (Bill) Hefner Salisbury Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in building 2 on the fifth floor, the new 1051 square-foot, state-of-the-art hybrid OR supports providers by facilitating new technical capabilities and equipment.
But most importantly, the new OR provides Veterans with more choices for specialty vascular care.
“All of those Veterans that previously were being referred to outside care will now be able to be treated here, which will increase the access our Veterans have to state-of-the-art quality vascular care,” said Dr. Robert Allen, chief of vascular surgery at the Salisbury VA. “No longer will they have to travel hours and hours to other centers to be treated; they will be able to be treated here locally.”
The focus of the hybrid OR is the management of vascular issues, with attention to specific vascular disease processes like blockages, aneurysms, and others involving both the arteries and the veins in the neck, brain, abdomen, and lower extremities.
The new OR allows providers to perform angiography, peripheral vascular procedures, and other interventions all in one room.
This hyper-specialized unit and its equipment also offer interventional radiology techniques and capabilities of a standard OR that can be used for both typical vascular surgery open procedures, and for angiography and interventions on blood vessels located in the legs, abdomen, extremities, or the neck.
The hybrid OR’s equipment includes a state-of-the-art fixed angio unit from Siemens that has a flat-screen display used by staff to complete the procedures while concurrently monitoring the Veteran.
The angio unit is also a robotic system which can execute complicated maneuvers that some standard full wall-mounted and floor-mounted systems cannot.
“So rather than using a C-Arm or a mobile unit, it's a fixed unit in the OR that allows us to take better pictures and provide better care for our Veterans. The fixed angio unit provides a much better angiography definition of our angiograms and allows us to use computerized techniques,” said Dr. Allen. “With more detail, we can do more complex procedures easily because of all the technology that comes with this unit.”
The unit also contains a fluoroscopic capability that is used with specific contrast dyes, which allows care teams to take pictures of the patient's blood vessels by inserting dye into the blood vessels to better visualize the arteries and where blockages, pathology, or disease may be located. This allows providers to treat Veterans with less invasive techniques.
Training and equipping nursing staff
The hybrid OR also introduces new training opportunities for clinical staff, to include nurses.
Many of the nursing units in the medical center have received weeks of specialized training equipping them to care for patients with the highest standard of care before, during, and after the procedures in the hybrid OR.
“We have the most proactive nursing and anesthesia staff who are more than willing to be trained to provide better care for our patients,” said Dr. Kenneth A. Lipshy, chief of surgery at the Salisbury VA. “They are more than willing to take the time to ensure we can collaborate and integrate new technology and procedures safely.”
Dr. Lipshy added this includes a nursing education program that constantly leads the way to ensure that nurses can voice their concerns and then work on a plan to address them appropriately.
“It's been a very unbelievable collaborative effort, and we are just beginning. Educationally, Dr. Allen has been outstanding with the patients and willing to share his knowledge,” said Paul Marcoccia, chief nurse of perioperative services at Salisbury VA.
From summer to early fall 2024, Dr. Allen and staff have worked on over 50 cases with positive feedback from Veterans including gratitude for much-needed pain relief.
After nearly a decade in the making, the multi-purpose and multi-disciplinary hybrid OR was launched in collaboration with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Vascular Chair Dr. Matthew Edwards, and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon Dr. Randolph Geary.
Both Dr. Edwards and Dr. Geary see patients at the Salisbury VA and Kernersville Health Care Center.
This academic partnership further ensures that VA continues to provide unmatched care for our Veterans for all their primary and specialty healthcare needs.
Many others helped along the way to guarantee a successful OR launch including Dr. Robin Hurley, associate chief of staff for research and academic affairs at Salisbury VA, and Dr. Elizabeth Bell, an anesthesiologist at Salisbury VA.
For more information on this story, email the Office of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs at salisburyvapublicaffairs@va.gov.
About the Salisbury VA Health Care System
At the Salisbury VA Health Care System, our mission is to fulfill President Lincoln’s promise to care for those who have served in our nation’s military and for their families, caregivers, and survivors.
Learn more at www.va.gov/salisbury-health-care.