Lex Med Blog

Imagine a machine that can take real-time, 3-D, HD images of the inside of your body during surgery. Doctors can see exactly what’s going on inside of you and make sure every step is correct throughout the surgical procedure. You probably wouldn’t want to have surgery without it. And now – you don’t have to.

Lexington Medical Center is the first hospital in the Midlands with the technologically advanced O-Arm, a new imaging system for spinal surgery.

The O-Arm is a machine placed around a patient on the operating table. Before surgery, doctors use the O-Arm to capture images of the patient that help them develop a precise surgical guide. During surgery, the O-Arm images allow neurosurgeons to confirm proper placement of instrumentation. After implants are placed, neurosurgeons use the O-Arm again to confirm correct placement of instruments in the spine and address anything further that needs to be done. Images are displayed on a large, digital flat screen at a view station next to the operating table.

For an up-close look at the O-Arm in the Lexington Medical Center operating room, watch this video. Dr. Scott Boyd, neurogurgeon at Columbia Neurology Associates narrates.

What is the O-arm? from Lexington Medical Center on Vimeo.

Before O-Arm technology, patients would have an MRI or CT scan before surgery and doctors would use 1- or 2-Dimensional images to guide them. They would place instruments and implants by using their best educated guess based on standard anatomy. But in back surgery, doctors are working through a small opening and it can be difficult to know where you are in the spine. Margins of error are millimeters – and implants must be placed with a great deal of accuracy.

Manufactured by Medtronic, the O-Arm improves safety for surgeons and staff members, lowers the chance of revision surgeries and can enhance patient outcomes. Spinal problems can be chronic and debilitating. The O-Arm gives patients a great opportunity for excellent results.

Lexington Medical Center began using the O-Arm this summer. For more information, visit www.lexmed.com/O-arm

Since the early 1970s, death investigations in Lexington County
have had the combined advantages of a coroner system and a
medical examiner service.

Dr. Guy Calvert, the founding director of Lexington Medical Center’s laboratories,
offered his forensic pathology expertise to Coroner Harry Harman in 1974,
during Coroner Harman’s first term in office. Dr. Calvert and Coroner Harman
worked closely in a wide variety of death investigations, establishing the
pattern of law enforcement advantages of a coroner system with the forensic
medicine expertise of a medical examiner system. As the Lexington community and
the LMC pathology group have grown, the advantages of this combined service
have become an important part of the hospital’s quality assurance program.

Pathology Associates of Lexington, P.A., the 10-member pathology group
at LMC, has played a critical role in the full spectrum of death investigations
and has served as expert witnesses in numerous homicide and accidental death
cases. Through these investigations, the group has played an increasing role in
LMC’s medical staff quality assurance program. LMC’s pathologists investigate
all manners of death to the full extent of inpatient medical autopsy studies
and submit complete reports to LMC physicians involved in the care of patients
within the coroner’s investigation.

Possibly uniquely in the United States, annual QA reports to the medical staff
indentify opportunities to improve care. Thorough investigations of infant
deaths have led to a significant decrease in the number of accidental infant
deaths (SIDS) in Lexington County, and a significant decrease in the number
of sudden, unexpected cardiac deaths. Observations of sudden cardiac death in
the coroner system led directly to LMC offering 24/7 STAT AMI profiling in
1994, which has significantly decreased the number of cardiac deaths after
discharge from a community medical center or ER visit. LMC was the first
hospital in the Midlands to offer this service. Similar results of death
investigations have prompted the urgency of physician office referrals of patients
presenting with acute coronary symptoms directly to a CMC or LMC’s ER.

By using coroner autopsy findings as a medical staff quality assurance process,
we have identified the absence of a personal physician as the single greatest
risk factor; refusal to seek medical care is the second most important risk factor.
Other survival benefits resulting from the coroner/medical examiner interface
include improvements in EMS intubation of critically ill infants, the evaluation
of prosthetic cardiac valve dysfunction and treatment of excess anticoagulant
medication.

Happy New Year! Throughout 2012, Lexington Medical Center will continue to implement Electronic Health Records throughout our hospital and physician practices. We believe this transformation will help to enhance and optimize patient care.

Electronic Health Records, known as EHR, move medical documentation into the 21st century by putting patient information at our fingertips with the simple touch of a button.

Health care providers will now access patient charts and securely exchange clinical information using computers, instead of paper patient charts. .

Doctors will be able to order and manage lab work electronically, reducing the time patients wait for tests and results. Results are added to the patient’s electronic chart allowing the clinicians and physicians greater opportunity to trend patient progress.

Staff can enter actions in the computer for a provider to complete such as reviewing results or signing notes. These processes can allow more time to be spent administering direct patient care.

Referrering doctors will have improved access to the patient record which will help enhance continuity of care.

EHR shows potentially dangerous drug interactions and keeps up-to-date lists of diagnoses, medications and allergies. The system also allows providers to send e-prescriptions to pharmacies so that your medications are ready when you get there.

Importantly, the system will maintain a secure place for health information, as both processes and system controls are in place to ensure access is based on need to know.

Some of Lexington Medical Center’s physician practices are already using EHR. Many more will be added this year. The transformation to EHR is required by federal law as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. We believe this change is good and consistent with Lexington Medical Center’s mission of providing quality health services to our community.