A surprisingly popular design feature of the surgery center I opened in 1990 was the patient family viewing rooms adjacent to one wall of each OR. I adapted the idea to incorporate viewing rooms into my practice from a concept cataract pioneers Howard Gimbel, MD, and Phil Hoopes, MD, had designed into their surgery centers. In my case, one wall of each OR was glass, letting the patient's family sit comfortably while watching the procedure performed on their loved one. A patient liaison would use an eye model and video screen showing images from the surgical microscope to explain developments as we went through the case. Upon completion of the surgery, I'd pick up a two-way phone for instant feedback with the family. The popularity of the viewing rooms convinced me to incorporate a similar amenity in my new facility. While I didn't have the space to construct a glass-walled area next to my OR, I equipped a room with a flat-screen monitor for the same purpose (pictured). We connected the monitor to the operating microscope in the OR and the excimer laser in the vision correction suite. Families can't look directly into each operating area, but they can still watch the procedures on the flat screen while using a switch to toggle between room cameras and the microscope-excimer laser cameras.

Paul Arnold, MD, FACS
Arnold Vision
Springfield, Mo.
writeMail("pnarnold@arnoldvision.com")