Bingham Memorial Hospital’s new surgical-assist robot

Bingham Memorial Hospital gave a behind-the-scenes look Tuesday at their newest system, called the da Vinci. The da Vinci Surgical System is a tool most major hospitals in our region use for invasive surgeries.

The surgical system is a robot that allows doctors to make smaller incisions and patients to have shorter hospital stays. It cost the hospital $1.5 million. That’s a hefty price, but this robotic tool is changing the way invasive surgeries are handled across the country.

“I feel like I have better outcomes, patients do better, have fewer side effects from their surgery, when I do my surgeries with this technology,” said BMH urologist Dr. David Sisul, who performs operations at Bingham Memorial.

What makes this system different its versatility. The hospital will use the da Vinci system for three main specialties: urology, gynecology and general surgery.

“We [urology] adopted it initially, but over the years general surgery and gynecology have also adopted it. The gynecologists are using it a whole lot right now. It’s nice for their hysterectomies, which is a very common surgery for them,” said Dr. Sisul.

Surgery with the da Vinci system does not mean a robot is performing the surgery alone. The system uses closely grouped stations: a console where the surgeon controls the instruments, the robot at the patient’s side and a 3-D color monitor.

Using the da Vinci system has a potential of lowering patient costs.

“If you’re doing it the old fashioned way essentially, those patients tend to stay longer in the hospital, have more bleeding, more pain. All those things add up to a higher cost of a hospital stay, so I guess if you look at it that way it does lower costs,” said Dr. Sisul.

Bingham Memorial Hospital recruited the most highly trained physicians in the region to operate this robot. Having technology of this magnitude in Blackfoot will serve the patients well.

“We pride ourselves in being the community hospital, not the hospital from out of state. We feel that being able to offer that here, our community members here in Blackfoot, as well as communities we serve in Idaho Falls and Pocatello, that they can come here and receive that same care they’ve come to know and trust over the last several years,” said Bingham Memorial COO Jake Erickson.