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Doctors Test Out New Emergency Department
Media information
For immediate release
Date: 27
January 2011
Doctors Test Out New Emergency Department
A patient simulator put junior doctors to the test at Waikato Hospital this week by helping to orientate them in the new Emergency Department.
The interactive and realistic wireless mannequin, known as SimMan, took part in four real-life emergency scenarios in the department which opens on 8 February.
The SimMan 3G first played the part of a patient going into cardiac arrest and was then put into a St John ambulance to be brought to hospital as a 30-year-old asthmatic, a semi-conscious 70-year-old and a 25-year-old with chest pain from a rugby injury.
“Using this new technology to orientate staff into the new department is a great way for them to learn in real-life emergency situations but without putting real patients at risk while they test their own skills,” said Rob Sinclair, director of Waikato Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre.
“And being wireless makes SimMan highly mobile and ideal for this sort of training in a new environment.”
Controlled remotely from a laptop, staff treated the SimMan as if it was a real patient in each scenario by performing medical interventions including CPR, using a defibrillator, administering medication, performing intubation and inserting chest drains.
A computer monitor attached records and displays vital signs including blood pressure, oxygen saturations and pulse as it reacts and provides feedback to treatment.
Mr Sinclair said the SimMan is able to breathe spontaneously, open its eyes, sweat, cry, its pupils react to light and make a variety of heart, lung and bowel sounds.
“It has an incredibly realistic anatomy and clinical functionality so it responds to medical interventions like a human would.
“This challenged the staff’s decision making skills and required them to navigate their way through the new department, communicate with each other, respond to alarms and source equipment from new storage locations.”
The SimMan 3G was purchased last year for $130,000.
Waikato DHB paid for half, and the remaining balance sponsored by:
Braemar
Charitable Trust
Souter Trust
University of Auckland; and
Waikato
Hospital’s Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit,
Department of Anaesthetics and individual
anaesthetists.
It is the second SimMan to be owned by the skills and simulation centre, a division of Waikato Clinical School, after the first one was purchased eight years ago.
Mr Sinclair said the new SimMan 3G will now be used in a variety of training courses for both under graduate and postgraduate medical and nursing staff, St John paramedics, GPs and practice nurses.
Waikato Hospital’s new
Emergency Department becomes operational at 8am, Tuesday 8
February.
Staff orientation is an important part of the plan for moving into this new department with all given ample opportunity to tour and spend time inside before it opens.
Each has been provided with an orientation manual that includes guidelines, instructions, maps and floors plans.
Visit www.waikatodhb.govt.nz/newemergency for more information.
ENDS
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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