Changes ahead for Danbury Hospital Robotic Surgery for Prostate patients
Changes ahead for Danbury Hospital
Robotic surgery, outpatient pediatric centers on tap
By Robert Miller
Staff Writer
Updated: 01/23/2009 01:22:35 AM EST
DANBURY -- Having created centers for spine surgery, cardiac surgery and reconstructive joint surgery, Danbury Hospital will turn its attention to better helping men with prostate cancer by establishing a robotic surgery center.
"The need is there and we need to provide it," hospital president and chief executive officer Frank Kelly said during the hospital's annual meeting Thursday.
Kelly also announced the hospital will create a center for outpatient pediatric care at a new medical building on Sand Pit Road, as well as expanding and modernizing the neonatal care unit in the hospital.
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in males. It is the third most common cause of death from cancer in men of all ages and the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in men over 75 years old.
The National Cancer Institute said there were an estimated 186,320 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States in 2008 and 28,660 prostate-related deaths. The disease is more common in blacks than whites.
Dr. Pierre Saldinger, the hospital's chairman of surgery, said the standard of care for prostate cancer surgery is to use robotic equipment.
"There's less blood loss, shorter hospital stays," he said.
Recent studies have also showed robotic surgery increases survival rates in prostate cancer patients and reduces the side effects of incontinence and impotence.
Saldinger said Danbury Hospital now has a urologist on staff, Dr.
James Bruno, who is trained to perform robotic surgery on prostate cancer patients. But lacking the equipment to do the work on site, Bruno refers his patients to other hospitals.
"We have the talent,'' Saldinger said. "We just don't have the machine."
Because of the expense of the robotic equipment, about $1.5 million, the hospital has not hurried to do the surgery. But now, he said, the technology is used increasingly throughout the country, and without it the hospital is not serving the male population in the greater Danbury area as well as it might.
"This was not a hasty decision,'' Saldinger said. "But the time is right.''
After the meeting, Kelly expanded on the plans to create a pediatric outpatient center on Sand Pit Road. He said the hospital's pediatric specialist in fields like endocrinology and gastroenterology will move there.
"It will be a very friendly, family-oriented, pediatric-oriented place,'' he said.
The move will also open up space in the hospital for other uses, Kelly said.
Kelly said Danbury Hospital also plans to use the second and third floors of its Stroock Building for obstetrics and women's health. That will include an expanded neonatal care unit that will allow more privacy for parents visiting their babies.
"Anyone who has been there knows the space is small,'' Kelly said of the neonatal unit. "We want to bring it up to current standards."
Contact Robert Miller at bmiller@newstimes.com
or at (203) 731-3345.
Danbury Hospital in 2008
n Billed patients for $954 million and received almost $12.5 million in grants and other income sources, for a total of $966 million.
n Of that amount, the hospital lost more than $500 million by providing services to Medicare and Medicaid patients -- when the fixed amount paid by the government does not match the cost of care -- and to patients who were unable to pay for care. That left the hospital with $465 million in income.
n Its expenses -- for salaries, benefits, supplies and utilities -- were $451 million.
n The hospital ended its year with a surplus of $14.7 million, which it used to retire debt, improve facilities and provide community services.
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