Social Security enables innovation in the service with the first operating room in the Emergency of the Ceibal General Accident Hospital

2023-09-29 01:47:40

Candelaria Anona Quisquinay, a Social Security beneficiary for ten years, left Santiago Sacatepéquez at three in the morning. She came to the capital to have stitches removed, since she had an accident that fractured her knee and hip. “It’s good that they have new equipment and improvements in care, because that benefits us,” said her daughter Gladys Burrión.

Burrión was referring to six remodeled operating rooms at the Ceibal General Accident Hospital. Another aspect that highlights the importance of this project is the opening of the first operating room in the Emergency of a Social Security medical unit.

This operating room will operate 24 hours a day and has the equipment to perform minor trauma surgery procedures. “We like to do new things. We didn’t have an operating room in this area. Thanks to the Board of Directors for authorizing this reality,” said the medical director of the hospital, Dr. Walter Forno.

They are now the most complete operating rooms in Guatemala and are designed to speed up waiting times.

In addition, this operating room has an anesthesia machine, surgical table, LED lamps and an emergency cart. “Now they are the most complete operating rooms in Guatemala and they are to speed up waiting times,” remarked the deputy manager of Health Benefits, Dr. Francisco Javier Gódinez.

While the six operating rooms are intended to deal with cases of traumatology and pediatric orthopedics, oral, maxillofacial and plastic surgery, otorhinolaryngology, ophthalmology, general surgery and neurosurgery.

For this last specialty, the new equipment includes state-of-the-art LED lamps, a lighting system with a camera that allows the procedure to be recorded and then used for teaching purposes, anesthesia machines equipped with a vital signs monitor, capnography monitor, oximetry and mechanical fan, microscope and C-arm.

The president of the Social Security Board of Directors, Mr. José Adolfo Flamenco Jau, emphasized that the population is being affected by a pandemic of motorcycle accidents. “To meet the objective of serving our population and providing better service, good management is needed, as demonstrated here,” he stated.

Every day an average of 65 surgeries are performed in the 20 operating rooms that this medical unit has. In neurosurgery, two operations are performed daily and each one lasts around four to six hours.

The staff that attends to the procedures in general is made up of specialists, an anesthesiologist, scrub nurse, a circulating nurse and various services for complete disinfection of the operating room at the end of the surgery.