Surgery Camp

When we were arrived Monday we were notified that a Surgery Camp was in progress. Surgery camp as it turns out is not about campfires, counselors,or  pubescent love affairs.  It involves doing way more cases than they would normally do in order to clear up the back-log but also partially just to see what they could actually do if they were pushed.

This Friday we discovered how they coped with this extra demand and only 6 rooms.

Simple you do two cases in the room at the same time.

They planned it so that one of the cases in the room was either local or spinal as they only have one anaesthetic machine per room. I am sure someone will or has already figured out how to do two patients with one machine (which is what might happen at my hospital in Edmonton if administration doesn't replace our aging machines). Having anaesthetic techs who can start cases including spinals on their own does help.

One of the American surgeons explained to me that they tried to ensure that a septic and non septic case were not done in the same room.

I personally would love to have our infection control people down here just to watch their heads explode.