Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Construction - Purchase and installation of the da Vinci Xi Single Console System will continue the improvement in patient care, the lowering of patient costs, and keep care local. SPRHC has been renting the system ($32,504/month, $390,048/year) since September 2022 due to the abundance in need. As of 02/08/23, SPRHC has been able to provide 31 minimally invasive surgery services to its rural and underserved service area. The System provides a magnified, high-definition 3-D image for superior clinical capability and translates the surgeon’s hand movements into precise micro-movements. Robotic procedures offer many benefits to patients, including smaller incisions, less scarring and pain, a reduced risk of surgical site infection, and quicker recovery times, reducing the days an individual remains in the hospital after procedures like colorectal surgeries. SPRHC is unable to financially support the continued rental of this system, and the community may suffer the loss of such services within this year. Vulnerable residents in diverse, rural Huerfano County deserve access to high quality critical healthcare. Specifically, Huerfano County has significantly higher rates of obesity, smoking, diabetes, and poor mental health days. The county’s low income and educational attainment, lack of reliable transportation, and other social determinants of health exacerbate these poor health outcomes. The renting of the system has allowed Spanish Peaks to provide cutting edge medical technology that improves patient outcomes and result in less downtime. This has lessened the fears of residents so that they are more inclined to have surgical procedures. New procedures include robotic cholecystectomy, robotic adrenalectomy, robotic inguinal hernia repair, robotic ventral hernia repair, robotic hiatal hernia repair, and robotic nissen fundoplication. Surgeons are able to conduct hernia (incisional & inguinal), gall bladder, fundoplication, colectomy, transanal surgeries. As well, an OB/GYN visiting physician will be able to utilize the system to perform specialized surgeries for the community starting in the spring. Without this system, patients would have to travel hours to larger hospitals to receive specialized treatments and face a lack of transportation in these rural communities. They would also risk complications that could lead to longer stays at bigger hospitals farther away. The purchasing of the equipment will have benefits beyond the local community. The HUB allows the Health Center to record and broadcast surgeries to other hospitals and surgeons that are looking to learn about robotics. It will provide “live” education, with patient consent, in efforts to expand the revolutionary technology. Benefits must be made permanent through the purchasing of the system.
