Hospital assistants are assigned to every two rooms. Their duties include stocking rooms, obtaining blood units, delivering stat specimens, assisting with patient positioning and transfer, and facilitating turnover between cases. The instrument room support staff processes instruments after surgery. The equipment technicians balance microscopes and set up television monitors and other equipment needed for surgical cases. Anesthesia technicians assist the anesthesiologists and nurses in setting up the anesthesia monitors for general and local cases.
Care is provided to patients of all ages, from fetal procedures to surgery for geriatric patients.
Many of the patients treated here have tumors, congenital diseases, osteoarthritis, pain disorders, end-stage renal and liver diseases, cardiovascular abnormalities, pulmonary diseases, and skeletal disorders. The average length of surgery is from four to six hours. Most patients come in on the day of surgery after having been seen at the Prepare Program beforehand. Excellent communication skills and self-direction are required. Standards of practice for the OR staff are based on the Association of Operating Room Nurses Standards, Recommended Practices and Guidelines .