The lobby at the Shands Florida Surgical Center on 34th Street will smell like solid cherry wood and new paint until it?s up and running.
The ,13.7 million surgical center will open Sept. 6 and with it, a revolutionary change in UF?s medical processes.
Manually chronicling surgeries on a whiteboard with dry-erase markers that smudge the hands of surgeons will be a tedious procedure of the past.
Instead, a 42-inch plasma screen will replace it to keep everyone up-to-date.
This screen and several others throughout the center will be linked to a server where patient information will be continuously updated.
Terry Wilson, nurse manager at the surgical center, said there is an entire room devoted to the wires connecting each electrical unit to the other.
BIt?s amazing,C she said. BIt?s like the Titantic in there.C
Clipboards will also disappear from the ends of patients? beds.
Nurses will input data on a rolling computer cart that will upload the information to bedside monitors.
This is all just small scale, though.
The technology used in the center is actually a test run for the Shands at UF Cancer Hospital.
BOur goal before we move into the cancer center in 2009, is to be paperless,C Wilson said.
The surgical center is equipped with eight operating rooms. Two rooms are 650 square feet, four are 450 square feet and two are 300 square feet.
All the rooms are fitted with the most technologically savvy tools offered in the medical field.
One of the operating rooms features three flat-screen monitors for each doctor in the room to monitor the surgery from every angle.
Lights overhead are fitted with interior cameras to broadcast instant footage to UF?s campus for medical classes.
BWe?re at the cutting edge as a learning center in the southeast,C Wilson said.
Wilson said when UF was in the initial stages of planning the center, she covered the walls in paper and had surgical staff members write what they wanted to see when they changed location.
BI believe most of what was written has been put in place here,C she said.
A color palette of yellow, green and blue radiates a comfort-centered feel.
In addition, bright photos of Florida wildlife hang in the lobby and examining rooms.
BWe wanted it to be kind of pleasant,C Wilson said. BNot scary and sterile.C
