Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we retrained a large percentage of our operating room personnel for coronavirus intensive care. But despite the pandemic and the deployment of Apotti, our number of operations had nearly caught up with the previous year’s level by December.
We operated on patients in nearly 150 operating rooms and performed 80,988 surgical procedures in 2020. The most commonly seen procedures are different in elective surgery and in emergency surgery.
| Most common procedures in elective surgery and emergency surgery 2020 (no. of operations) | |
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| Ultrasound cataract surgery, posterior chamber intraocular lens | 4,356 |
| Knee replacement without patellar part, sliding prosthesis | 1,676 |
| Inguinal hernia prosthetic surgery | 1,395 |
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| Appendectomy by laparoscopy | 1,755 |
| Caesarian section through the isthmus of the uterus | 1,535 |
| Lower limb wound revision and possible closure | 1,086 |
Agile training
The coronavirus pandemic transformed the work of our surgical wards in the spring. In rapid succession, we retrained a significant percentage of our operating room nurses and anesthetic nurses and employees in other departments for support duties in coronavirus patient care.
Preparing for the coronavirus pandemic resulted in a significant reduction in the number of elective surgical procedures in various parts of HUS in the spring.
96 546 in 2019
80 900 in 2020
Apotti changes the way we work
The Apotti patient and customer information system is now in use at all of our operating rooms. We deployed Apotti at Jorvi, at the Women’s Hospital and at Hyvinkää, Lohja, Porvoo and Västra Nyland hospital areas in February 2020. In late October, the deployment came to Meilahti and other hospitals in the Helsinki University Hospital area.
Despite the introduction of a new IT system, the monthly number of surgical procedures nearly attained the 2019 level by December.
Less supplies, more responsibility
Our surgical wards are continuously running various renovation and improvement projects. The most significant future change and construction project is the Bridge Hospital, which is to open in 2023. The planning of the new surgical ward is proceeding according to schedule.
Operating rooms are among the largest consumers of materials and energy in a hospital. Our ‘Ecological ATeK’ campaign in 2020 focused on informing people on how to reduce supply waste. We are aware of our responsibility to contribute to the common good and will continue to campaign for sustainable use of supplies.
Although our core work – operating room procedures and intensive care – cannot be performed remotely, we nevertheless adopted the digital change internally and held most of our meetings and training remotely.