Phoebe Sumter’s milestone; da Vinci XI program accomplishes 100 successful surgeries

AMERICUS, Ga. – In only a matter of months, the Phoebe Health System has reached a major milestone, as their da Vinci surgical system has successfully performed 100 surgeries.

I met with the Director of Surgical Services, Genie Giles to talk about the program and reaching this milestone within half a year’s time.

“There is a lot that goes into getting ready for a case for the robot. From the central sterile team, all the way to the OR to the recovery side…I never dreamed we would do this in five months, that we would be right here. It seems like just yesterday we did our first procedure,” said Genie Giles, Director, Surgical Services, Phoebe Sumter.

She’s not the only one proud of the success that the da Vinci XI surgical success has had on patients…

As Bariatric Surgeon, Dr. Jeremy Joyner explains how they’ve been able to be more thorough in performing operations.

“The visualization is actually one of the biggest improvements. Because you can see everything in three dimensions instead of two dimensions. And, in much higher definition. And, with the magnification, things like seeing blood vessels before they bleed makes a big difference,” said Dr. Jeremy Joyner, Bariatric Surgeon, Phoebe Sumter.

In fact, just ask Katherine Raines, who had been operated on earlier in the year with the system…

She says any surgical scars have nearly healed up since having the surgery.

“…And, I didn’t know it was going to be as easy as it was. In fact I had to ask a lot of questions and did a lot of research about it after I found out what they were going to do. And, pretty much what Dr. Joyner was going to do to me…” said Katherine Raines, former patient.

But, the early success of the program is an even bigger landmark for what many consider to be a rural hospital in Phoebe’s Sumter campus.

“It’s absolutely amazing. It is. I never thought that I would live to see the day that something this futuristic would be in my life and work on me. So, it’s amazing to see that we’ve grown that far,” said Katherine Raines, former patient.

With the early success of the da Vinci XI program comes two realizations: that more robotics can be incorporated in rural hospitals and that this rural hospital is at the forefront of the medical scene in Georgia.

The da Vinci XI program was only introduced in may of this year.

Brian Roche reporting.

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