Sudden surgery can be scary. For Katrina Voyles — a Brownsville, Tennessee, resident — it certainly was, and beyond the surgery, it meant leaving her 3-year-old behind.
After being transferred to Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis, Voyles was able to receive robot-assisted surgery the same day and was discharged the next day.
"The most important [benefits of this type of robot-assisted surgery] are less pain after surgery, shorter stays in the hospital — potentially with no overnight stay at all — and faster return to life, including work," said Dr. Moriah Wright, general colorectal surgeon and chair of Saint Francis' Robotic Steering Committee.
At a recent news conference announcing its accreditation as a robotic surgery Center of Excellence, Voyles' story was highlighted to illustrate the benefits of the hospital's acumen in robotic surgery.
"With having a young child and having a easy healing process, the surgery was a weight lifted, and [it was] easier to jump back into everyday life," Voyles said at the news conference.
Saint Francis-Memphis is the first and only hospital in Tennessee to be designated a Center of Excellence in Robotic Surgery by Surgical Review Corporation (SRC), an independent nonprofit focused on patient safety.
"This momentous award honors the culmination of the efforts of our physicians and staff to be recognized for their skill in robotic surgery," Scott Smith, market CEO of Saint Francis, said at the news conference in front of many of the hospital's staff.
The accreditation process took about a year, according to Wright, who helped lead the process. The process took into account a variety of factors, including surgery volume, outcomes, education and training of the surgical staff, equipment, and patient experience.
Saint Francis has four Da Vinci robots, which it uses to perform minimally invasive surgeries. Saint Francis-Memphis surgeons are trained to perform robot-assisted surgeries in gynecology, gynecologic oncology, general surgery, colorectal surgery, and urology.
Wright said the most performed surgeries using the hospital's robots are gallbladder removal, hernia repair, and hysterectomies.
Surgeons at Saint Francis-Memphis have performed over 10,000 robotic surgeries since the institution started performing them in 2011.
In addition to its new accreditation, Saint Francis-Memphis is the only hospital in Memphis that is able to perform robotic surgeries 24 hours a day, due to meeting the staff and training requirements to do so. Voyles said she benefited from this, having received an after-hours surgery.
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