New hybrid operating rooms bring advanced imaging into Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula surgical suite — First of its kind in Monterey County

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Contact: Allison Stegge, Marketing and Communications: (831) 622-2773

Minimally invasive and “open” surgeries can be performed in the same surgical suite, and even at the same time, thanks to world-class technology at Community Hospital.

MONTEREY, CA. — Two hybrid operating rooms (ORs) are up and running at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, providing new state-of-the-art space for heart, vascular, and other care. The hybrid ORs are the first in Monterey County and are usually only found in larger communities or at academic medical centers.

Hybrid ORs marry the advanced imaging technology used in minimally invasive procedures with the features of a surgical suite. This creates a single environment that can be used for traditional “open” surgeries, with larger incisions to access the surgical site, and transcatheter procedures which are done through small incisions, guided by the imaging systems.

The hybrid ORs replace two cardiac catheterization laboratories (cath labs) and will continue to be home to a range of heart procedures, including opening blocked arteries, replacing valves, and repairing other heart defects. The advanced technology will also allow the addition of new transcatheter procedures, including minimally invasive mitral valve interventions for the treatment of leaky mitral valves.

“This project enhances procedures we already provide and enables us to develop others, such as our endovascular surgery program,” says Dr. Steven Cabrales, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Montage Health.

Newly possible procedures include endovascular procedures to treat problems in blood vessels, like aortic aneurysm repair, and neurovascular procedures, like breaking up or removing blood clots from the brain.

The suite is also poised to accommodate procedures that involve both open surgery and minimally invasive interventions on the same patient. For example, a patient with blockages in both the leg and the pelvis might be treated with a surgical bypass in the leg and a catheter-placed stent in the pelvis, all during one session in a hybrid OR.

Such procedures will benefit from the hybrid ORs’ “phenomenal” imaging, says Julie Rush, RN, director of Community Hospital’s Tyler Heart Institute. The system uses a robotic arm that can move around the procedure table to capture images from just about any angle, in 2D and 3D. One of the hybrid ORs has a “biplane” X-ray system that gives doctors real-time visualization from two angles, needed for certain interventions.

The system scans faster than the previous technology and each image covers a bigger area of the body; both factors mean patients need less of the intravenous contrast used for the imaging. Other elements of hybrid ORs can also contribute to patient safety and successful outcomes:

• If a procedure can be done using a minimally invasive technique, the patient may need only mild sedation rather than general anesthesia which can be more taxing for some patients, especially the elderly
• Hospital stays and recovery times are generally shorter with minimally invasive procedures
• If something unexpected happens during a minimally invasive procedure and open surgery is required, it can be done in the same room, rather than stopping the procedure and moving the patient to an OR

“Community hospitals don’t usually have these kinds of things,” says Dr. Ahmad Edris, Director of Interventional Cardiology and Structural Heart Disease at Montage Medical Group. “This automatically results in the recruitment of physicians who have skill sets that can add to the community, and also add to the skill sets of our staff to better treat our patients.”

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ABOUT COMMUNITY HOSPITAL OF THE MONTEREY PENINSULA

Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, established in 1934, has grown and evolved in direct response to the changing healthcare needs of the people it serves. Its parent company is Montage Health, the umbrella for entities that work together to deliver exceptional care and inspire the pursuit of optimal health. Community Hospital is a nonprofit healthcare provider with 220 staffed acute-care hospital beds and 28 skilled-nursing beds, delivering a continuum of care from birth to end of life, and every stage in between. It serves the Monterey Peninsula and surrounding communities through locations including the main hospital, outpatient facilities, satellite laboratories, a mental health clinic, a short-term skilled nursing facility (Westland House), Hospice of the Central Coast, Montage Wellness Centers, and business offices. Find more information about Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula at chomp.org.

ABOUT MONTAGE HEALTH

Montage Health is the local, nonprofit parent company of a family of organizations dedicated to improving lives by delivering exceptional care and inspiring the pursuit of optimal health. Through its subsidiaries and its partnerships with doctors and other clinicians, healthcare and community organizations, and, most importantly community members, Montage Health is dedicated to care that is coordinated across all care settings to meet each person’s goals and needs. Montage Health companies include Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Montage Medical Group, Montage Health Foundation, Montage Wellness Center, Aspire Health, and MoGo Urgent Care. For more information, visit montagehealth.org.