MCCG First in Georgia to Offer Outpatient Robotic Procedures

MCCG First in Georgia to Offer Outpatient Robotic Procedures

Addition of Second daVinci^® Robot Provides Superior Care to More Patients   

MACON, GA (Monday, March 18, 2013) – The Medical Center of Central Georgia (MCCG) has purchased a second daVinci^® robot for its Ambulatory Surgery Center, allowing the hospital that has lead the region in robotic assisted surgeries to offer the service to even more patients.

MCCG becomes the first hospital in the state to offer robotic surgical procedures on an outpatient basis. Outpatient robotic procedures are available to children and adults.

“The addition of a second robot in MCCG's Ambulatory Surgery Center allows operations to be performed in the best possible setting to allow the patient a speedy recovery. Patients receiving operations such as hysterectomies and gall bladder removal will benefit from MCCG's additional robot bybeing able to return to their homes for recovery,” said Betty Casey, MSN RN, Assistant Vice President of Surgical Services at MCCG.

As the region's leader in procedures performed with thedaVinci^® robotic surgery system, MCCG chose to add its second robot due to the volume of patients in need of the service.

“The Medical Center of Central Georgia has had a large volume of cases that could be performed with robotics, and these cases spread across many specialties. The volume has left patients waiting for a period of time to receive their much needed surgeries. The addition of a second daVinci^® robot has created a shorter period of time from diagnosis to surgical procedure, thus allowing patients a quicker return to health,” said Casey.

The daVinci^® robotic surgery system assists surgeons as they perform minimally invasive surgeries. MCCG was the first hospital in Central Georgia to acquire the daVinci^® technology in 2007, and since that time the robotic system has assisted urologists, gynecologists, cardiologists, general surgeons, and most recently, pediatric surgeons.

The addition of daVinci^® Si  in 2012 allowed surgeons to remove the gall bladder through a single incisions in the navel approximately one inch in size, leaving no visible scar and permitting a faster recover time. The first outpatient robotic procedure performed at MCCG was a single site gallbladder removal. This is the first step toward implementing single-site robotic techniques in other procedures that currently require multiple or large incisions.

Patients benefit from the less invasive surgery method provided by the daVinci^® robotic surgery system in several ways. By choosing to use daVinci^®, the patient may experience less pain, less blood loss, fewer stitches, less  need for narcotics, faster recovery time and a quicker return to normal activities. An outpatient surgical setting is particularly conducive to permitting a faster recovery and a quicker return to normal activities.

The daVinci^® robotic surgery system is changing the surgical experience for Central Georgians who choose MCCG. State-of-the-art technology is one of the ways MCCG is striving for superior outcomes for all patients, both young and old.