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Healthcare Journal of Baton ROuge

I 

MAY / JUN 2017

17

technology, but it has been shown to have

less blood loss, faster recovery. I don’t think

we can actually charge for using a robot, it’s

just a better quality of care for the patient.

Another big thing, in vascular surgery

for instance, is what you call an OR hybrid

room. I can remember we talked about it

several years ago, saying, “Oh, it’s going to

cost over a million dollars, can we afford

this?” Well, it’s a room where you actually

have an operating room and an intensive

imaging device from the ceiling. So, we can

do balloons and stents and do surgery in the

same room. I can tell you right now, it’s dif-

ficult to get that room. Everybody wants to

use it. It allows you to do both in one room

so it’s quicker, it’s safer, you just do a bet-

ter job. That’s been a major advance. And

the thing in surgery now is, we are mov-

ing a lot more to be non-invasive. When I

was trained, everything was open surgery.

Now, sixty percent of what I do is endovas-

cular, where we use a balloon or stent, we do

appendectomies, we do different things per-

cutaneously without making an incision, and

that has kind of been the big push among

all of the fields.

Editor

What are some of the challenging

issues in the Chief Medical Officer role?

Olinde

Well I can tell you the hard thing

for me is that the CMO is an administrative

job. And then here I am, I’m cut from the

other side. I have to kind of wear different

“Another big thing, in vascular surgery for

instance, is what you call an OR hybrid room…

it’s a roomwhere you actually have an operating

room and an intensive imaging device from the

ceiling. So, we can do balloons and stents and do

surgery in the same room. I can tell you right now,

it’s difficult to get that room. Everybody wants to

use it.”

Photo courtesy of Baton Rouge General Medical Center