da Vinci robot in action
But it certainly does not hurt.
It has been three months since RMC started using its first surgical robot –- the $2 million Da Vinci Si Surgical System. So far the machine has met doctors’ operating expectations and has improved recovery time for patients.
“Most patients are impressed at how small the incisions are,” said Dr. Terry Phillis, one of the three doctors now trained to use the RMC robot. “And their amount of discomfort is significantly less.”
So far, Phillis has performed 25 operations with the robot, including prostatectomies and kidney surgeries –- work he never imagined doing while he was in medical school.
“It’s beyond what we dreamed and imagined it would be,” Phillis said.
RMC officials purchased the robot in May after several years of discussion, said RMC CEO David McCormack.
McCormack said the technology has been around for a while, but it was previously used exclusively for hysterectomy procedures.
“It wasn’t feasible for us to purchase it … not cost effective … until it could expand the different procedures it could do,” McCormack said.
Today, in addition to hysterectomy, prostatectomy and kidney surgeries, the robot can be used to perform prostate cancer treatments as well as other gynecologic surgeries. McCormack added that the robot will soon be used to perform various lung, heart and colon surgeries.
The robot has three arms that can hold different surgical instruments as well as a fourth arm, which holds a small video camera capable of magnifying images several times in full three dimensional, high definition quality.
The controls for the robot are stationed just a few feet away from the machine itself.
“To control it, you put your fingers in Velcro sleeves and you use them like joysticks that can control the instruments,” said Dr. Jeff Collins, who performed his seventh hysterectomy with the robot Thursday morning. “It’s a lot easier to thread needles and do surgery because everything is magnified. And extra precision means less blood loss.”
McCormack said the main reason why the hospital needed the robot was to provide better medical services to the community. Before the robot, any patient needing the type of non-invasive surgery the robot provides would have to go to Birmingham or Atlanta.
“This is not something we are going to make money on,” McCormack said. “This is designed to provide a service to the community. And since we are a community hospital, this gives patients another reason to stay here.”
And so far, more local patients have stayed close to home.
McCormack said more than 40 robotic surgeries have been performed since June – surgeries that would all have been performed elsewhere had RMC not had the robot.
McCormack acknowledged that long-term, the robot would likely become a financial engine for the hospital.
“In the long run, if we did not do this, we would have lost a lot of business over the future,” he said.
To Phillis, the greater impact the robot will have may not be on patients, but on RMC’s medical staff.
“The biggest impact may be in attracting other physicians,” Phillis said. “RMC is doing what it takes to keep up with current medicine. You have to show that … you want to continue to draw medical talent to the area.”
Collins said the machine is popular among most patients due to the small, non-invasive incisions it can perform compared to surgeons performing the same operation by hand.
“Recovery time is hugely different for patients and the hospital stay is shorter,” Collins said. “Patients like this a lot more … they can get back to work quicker and there is less pain.”
Through a hysterectomy with the robot, a patient can go home the day after surgery and be back to normal within a couple of weeks, Collins said. For a traditional hysterectomy, however, the hospital stay would be at least two days and recovery would take about six weeks, he said.
Dr. James Daniel, who has performed nine hysterectomies with the machine to date, said he likes the robot because it cuts down on recovery time, infections and blood loss.
“Blood loss and recovery are the two big things,” Daniel said.
Daniel said the robot is the latest example of how far medical technology has progressed in just a few years.
Five years ago, 75 percent of the hysterectomies Daniel performed would have been done with large, invasive incisions, he said.
“Now, 75 percent I’ve done are minimally invasive,” he said. “It is amazing.”
Contact staff writer Patrick McCreless at 256-235-3561.
