Operating Suite

On a daily basis 45 to 60 – and sometimes more – cases come through the Operating Suite at Parkland. The suite has 18 rooms for elective, urgent and emergent procedures.

At 6:45 a.m. the hallway to the operating room is lined with residents and staff gathering for the morning report, a time to communicate about the changes and needs for the coming day. Cases are assigned to the staff by 7 a.m., and usually around 7:30 a.m. patients are taken into the operating room.

Throughout the rest of the day a number of patients are taken into operating rooms and brought out to recovery rooms. Cases can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 10 hours or longer to complete. No two days are ever alike as each patient brought into the OR has different needs and assessments.