Frederick Health Hospital Receives National Recognition

The Thoracic Oncology Program receive designation as a United States Care Observation Site.Frederick, Md (KM) It’s “a great honor” for Frederick Health Hospital. FHH’s Thoracic Oncology Program has been designated a United States Case Observation Site by Intuitive, a manufacturer of robotic-based assisted surgery platforms.Dr. Maurice Smith is a thoracic surgeon at Frederick Health Hospital, and the Medical Director for Chest Surgery. “We have the new technology with ION technology which allows us to do bronchoscopies in a painless procedure.. It allows to get to nodules we couldn’t get to before,” he says. “So with previous technology, if there was something that was small, we had to watch it. But now we are able to go after it safely.”He says physicians can then examine the nodule to determine if it’s cancerous.Thoracic surgeries involve operating on the chest, particularly the lungs.Dr. Smith says this designation of a United States Case Observation site means FHH can teach this advanced robotic surgery to other physicians from around the country. “Most the designations are all academic centers. For us to have this ability to be a community hospital and be able to have this distinction is a big deal. We really feel honored about it and know a lot of people have helped in this regard,” he says.Because the hospital received this designation recently, Dr. Smith says so far no doctors from other states have come to Frederick Health Hospital to receive instruction on this robotic technology. But some Maryland physicians have come by for instruction.Even though this is called robotic-assisted surgery, Dr.  Smith says that doesn’t mean robots do  the surgery. “The term robot just means that the instruments that are used, instead of being held by a person, the instruments are connected to a console where the surgeon they will maneuver the instruments,:” he says. “This allows greater visualization, but more importantly, a lot finer movement and more successful and quick recovery.”And this benefits a patient. “With these older incisions that used to happen, a patient is in the hospital for close to seven to ten days. Now with this operation we can have the patient out of the hospital in almost three or more days, and recovery is almost cut in half,” says Dr. Smith.Frederick Health Hospital is a leader in robotic innovation and currently uses several robotic-assisted surgery platforms, according to a news release from FHH. The hospital says it’s the first and only health care facility in Maryland to have the da Vinci 5 which is the most technologically advanced robotic surgery platform on the market.By Kevin McManus