Back To The Future

After all the planning, remodeling, jack hammering, and fine tuning was finally done..this room #1 was closed. We moved to the new, big, improved room #3. It will take time to get used to this change. Mostly getting used to calling it room 3! When I came here to work in 1978 this surgical suite was fairly new. I was impressed by the nice size of the rooms. Especially OR #1. It was made for orthopedic surgery even though there wasn't one on staff..yet. The next year we had one ortho Doc and then got another one the year after that. We haven't stopped improving on that service since. It's growing by leaps and bounds. Thanks to us baby boomers who, because of our life style of over eating and not exercising, are wearing out our hips and knees. We do a ton of total joints. We are ranked 5th in Ohio for our joint program. Our infection rate is almost zero. Now we have 2 new modern rooms to keep improving this part of our services. I enjoyed learning in this room. Working with the Docs and having fun too. I don't know who remembers the TV show Mash..The show where Radar goes home and he's looking into the surgery suite while all the action is happening, but he's leaving. Saying goodbye to this room reminds me of this episode. Standing and looking in...knowing life is changing and you are too. Can't go back, only forward. This is just one of the many new changes we will experience this year. All of us are taking deep breaths, hoping we can keep up, move along, and make it a better place for our patients.


You can see the caring and concern the Docs have for our patients. Here's Dr. R, anesthesiologist, keeping a close eye on all the monitors. And also the radio to make sure his fav tunes are being played!
Although this was our largest room, you can see the tons of equipment that it takes to do orthopedics. The wires, the machines, the cords I have personally tripped over and landed knees first on the floor! Yes, it was more than time to expand and upgrade to modern equipment that is off the floor, compacted into special booms, and computerized. But still, I will miss you old room #1. I've learned alot in this room!
It's empty now, but not for long. It will be used as a storage area and eventually it will be remodeled into more space for the recovery room.
Comparing this room...the new room..room #3 to be exact, you can see how large it is. It's really a pleasure to work in there, except I have to say it might be...gulp..almost...gulp...too big?? Shhhhh.. Don't tell anyone I said that. More things will change in the future, in that I'm sure. But how many I'll be around to see, I can't really tell. But memories will be had here. Caring, healing, heart pounding nerves, funny stories and life altering events for patients will continue as they had in old room #1. Wish us luck!