Congressman Elijah E. Cummings Proudly Representing Maryland's 7th District

The Operating Rooms of the Future

April 28, 2003

Advance Text of Remarks
University of Maryland Medical Center
Grand Opening of New Operating Rooms

Baltimore, Maryland

Background Summary:

The University of Maryland Medical Center is opening the nation’s newest, most technologically advanced surgical facility. The 52,000 square foot facility is located in the new 380,000 square foot Weinberg Building. It will house 19 operating rooms for adult and pediatric patients, two minor procedure rooms, a 28-bed Post Anesthesia Care Unit, a Same Day Center and a Surgical Prep Center for preoperative assessments with a separate pediatric prep area..

Advanced Technology: Advanced built-in imaging systems with mobile monitors will assist surgeons in performing a variety of minimally invasive procedures. Other monitors will enable the operating room staff to instantly access diagnostic images and lab results. Wide view cameras will beam images from all 19 operating rooms, the post anesthesia care unit and the minor surgery suite to a control center. One of the operating rooms is outfitted with galvanized steel and copper walls to house an MRI scanner - enabling surgeons to have real-time images to guide them in very delicate surgical procedures. Four of the operating rooms will have sophisticated telemedicine capability - allowing for world-wide consultation and training.

Patient Safety: The design of the new OR facility has been carefully planned to enhance patient safety and reduce the chance of infection. A special air handling system will reduce patient exposure to airborne impurities.

Congressional Support: Because of the valuable support of Maryland Senators Sarbanes and Mikulski, Congressmen Cummings, Cardin, Hoyer and Erhlich - $2.5 million in federal funding has purchased some of this equipment from the U.S. Army’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center. (They hope to receive an additional $3 million this year). The University of Maryland surgical facility is a test site for U.S. Army operating room technology.

CONGRESSMAN CUMMINGS’ REMARKS

Thank you, Dr. [Stephen] Schimpff, for your kind words of introduction - and for all that you, Dr. [John W.] Ashworth, Dr. [Roger W.] Voight and the entire University of Maryland Medical Center faculty and board are doing to save lives here in our community. I am honored to join my long-time friend and new colleague in the Congress, Dutch Ruppersberger, here with you in this magnificent new Weinberg building.

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in showing our appreciation to the Henry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and all of the other organization that are supporting world-class medicine here at the University of Maryland.

I take great pride in the fact that Maryland’s Seventh Congressional District is the home of two of the world’s premier medical facilities. With all due respect to Johns Hopkins, I am a University of Maryland Law School alumnus - so I can’t help but take a special interest in the excellence that we are achieving here at my alma mater.

Senators Sarbanes, Senator Mikulski, Congressmen Cardin, Congressman Hoyer and Governor Erhlich have scheduling conflicts that prevent their being with us this morning. I am certain, though, that Dutch Ruppersberger joins me in commending our teammates on “Team Maryland” who have worked so hard in Washington to support world-class medical care here in Baltimore.

Our ongoing priority is to build strong partnerships that link the U.S. Army’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research efforts and other federal programs to our medical and nursing facilities here in Baltimore.

The $2.5 million in federal funding that is helping to pay for the equipment that make these “operating rooms of the future” available to save lives today is one outgrowth of that continuing bipartisan effort. And I just want to thank my colleagues for all that they are doing to make life better for the people of the Baltimore Region and Maryland

The doctors, nurses and other health care professionals here at the University of Maryland are remarkable human beings. You deserve the very best support that we can provide.

Thank you.