Hybrid OR a first for Atlantic Canada

HALIFAX – The QEII Health Sciences Centre is getting ready to open Atlantic Canada’s first hybrid operating room. The hybrid OR will be located on the fifth floor of the Halifax Infirmary (HI) site of the QEII Health Sciences Centre and will feature state-of-the-art medical imaging equipment that will allow for advanced surgical procedures.

It will offer the capability to perform image-guided procedures through small incisions, minimizing pain and speeding up recovery. It will also offer the resources to perform open surgeries, when they are needed, instead of moving patients to other OR facilities.

Dr. Greg Hirsch, senior medical director of perioperative (surgical) surgeries, recently told CBC News that “the new hybrid OR will allow us to reach Nova Scotians who have major disease in their arteries around their heart and in their belly and problems with heart valves in a less-invasive way with the assurance that we can back that up with an invasive approach.”

The new hybrid OR is 40 percent larger than existing ORs. The next steps in construction include the completion of the two new interventional radiology suites on the third floor of the HI.

The new hybrid OR will be named after Stewart Allen, founder of Sparkling Spring water in Truro and local philanthropist.

Allen donated $1 million to the QEII Foundation in support of the hybrid OR, which paved the way for the foundation to raise an additional $4 million needed to support the purchasing of new surgical technology and equipment. The hybrid OR is expected to be complete by the summer of 2021.