From the pristine hallways and glossy new elevators to the hope for the future represented here, everything shines inside Cape Fear Valley Health’s Center for Medical Education and Neuroscience Institute. In fact, it’s a bit difficult to settle on what exactly is most impressive inside this five-story, much-anticipated and vital addition to the community that opened in January 2023.
On the first floor, a 500-seat auditorium is large enough to accommodate a full contingent of residents, medical students and faculty members. Cape Fear Valley Health’s Neuroscience Institute, on the fifth floor, is designed to attract top-notch neurologists and neurosurgeons from around the country and provide important training for residents.
However, the state-of-the-art simulation lab on the third floor definitely makes a case for itself.
“We have a level of technology very few places have,” Mark Rose said.
Rose, a former paramedic, is the center’s Manager of Simulation Operations, and it’s apparent he relishes his work. A quick tour with him will leave you blinking your eyes, stepping in for a closer look and finding it difficult to believe the realistic patients being treated inside this bustling lab are actually mannequins. These extraordinarily sophisticated and human-like models are connected to a cutting-edge technology system that allows residents, surgeons, nurses, paramedics and other medical staff members to gain invaluable, realistic training. The center features a fully simulated emergency room, operating room and labor and delivery room, allowing doctors to train in a way that simulates the real-life situations they face.
In the simulated emergency room, for instance, a team of respiratory therapists recently was busy practicing ventilator therapy on the most realistic of artificial patients. From a computer inside an adjacent control room, the therapists’ work could be monitored by an instructor.
“We’re the only one in the state to have that mannequin,” Rose said. “You can talk to him and ask him to raise his right arm, and he’ll do it. His breath sounds and heart tones are realistic. He’ll sit up and talk to you; his eyes will follow you around the room. With him, we can use any piece of equipment in the hospital.”
The cardiac catheterization lab simulates the minimally invasive tests and advanced cardiac procedures doctors perform to diagnose and treat cardiovascular disease.
“This technology is probably the most amazing on the market,” Rose said. He points to a computer screen that displays an actual human case that translates to the work performed on the mannequin, including X-rays taken and medication given. A computer printout following the procedure gives a full summary of everything done.
“The longer the case goes the more in-depth it gets,” Rose said. “You actually have to use all the real tools; when you’re doing something, you actually do it. It’s not like you’re just saying what you’re doing. For instance, if you want to use a certain suction instrument to remove a clot, you have to actually have to select and use all the real equipment.
“This technology allows residents to develop that muscle memory, so that it’s there when they perform the actual procedures,” he said. “You can never replace a real person, but this is as close as you can get.”
The simulation lab is a valuable tool for recruiting new physicians, as well as residents. Rose said one neurovascular surgeon being recruited was so impressed by the cardiac catheterization lab, that he lingered after the tour was complete to check it out further.
The 5,000 square feet of well-used space in the simulation lab includes its own three-dimensional print lab, in which anatomical replicas can be printed to scale ahead of complicated surgeries. It also includes an ultrasound technology room that guides users through a multitude of procedures, including those used in all three trimesters of pregnancy.
“The residents are in there almost every day,” Rose said.
The simulation lab is designed to look like an actual medical center, beginning when you walk in the door to the waiting room, which doubles as a secondary debriefing room. Just outside the waiting room are scrub sinks, used just like those outside actual operating rooms.
“The ultimate goal is to improve patient care,” Rose said. “Everything we do is with the patient in mind. The support of the community, Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation and our staff has been huge.”