Dressed in surgical gowns, hair nets and face masks, kids at Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center filed one by one into a room where they were ready to treat their patients: sick teddy bears.
With bandages, thermometers and a few of the hospital’s nurses at the ready, the kids got to work checking heartbeats and repairing broken paws to ensure their sick stuffies got the care they needed.
The demonstration was one of several that introduced hundreds of kids on Sunday to how hospitals operate and showcased new healthcare technology. The gathering was part of the annual Las Vegas Science and Technology Festival, a series of free events through Saturday intended to spark kids’ curiosity in science-related fields.
Nick Johnson, CEO of Southern Hills, said the event helps kids imagine themselves having a career in a hospital.
“We’re always looking for an opportunity to expose them to what happens in healthcare, so that maybe someday they’re future doctors that are taking care of me and you and everybody else,” Johnson said.
The showcases got parents like Sarah Polis, an endocrinologist at Southern Hills Hospital, to bring her daughters Natalie, 5, and Heidi, a 7-year-old who told her mother she wants to become an orthopedic surgeon. With curious kids who were eager to learn more about their mother’s work, Polis said she brought her girls to the event to experience a morning as a doctor.
“They see that their mom is a doctor. … but I wanted them to have the real experience (and) see how it looks inside the hospital,” Polis said. “I think it will help them to decide later exactly what they want to be.”
Medical robot a ‘game changer’
Around the hospital’s lobby, staff showed off several robots and technologies that are now commonplace inside its rehabilitation and operating rooms.
A touchscreen displayed various games intended to help brain trauma patients regain hand-eye coordination and motor skills. Another room had a surgical robot with four movable claws that users could maneuver with extreme precision.
One display showcased an orthopedic robot that Justin Truelove, a senior clinical specialist at Southern Hills, called a “game changer” for major knee, hip or spine surgeries.
Using CT scans, Truelove said the robot can map out a patient’s bones that are accurate within half a millimeter. The details allow him and surgeons to strategize the best way to approach a surgery before their patient ever reaches the operating room.
“We actually do the surgery in our heads. … so we don’t have any surprises,” he said.
Truelove said the orthopedic robot is regularly used since the hospital got it in 2018. With the robot’s help, he added, patients can be back up and walking as quickly as 10 days after an operation.
Johnson, the hospital CEO, said each medical robot costs the hospital around $1 million. He sees the investment in high-end technologies as a way of getting top-notch medics to come and heal the Las Vegas Valley’s residents.
“If we’re going to attract top talent providers — surgeons, doctors — to come to Las Vegas and take care of our populations, then that means that they want to have the tools that they know perform the best surgeries,” Johnson said.
Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.
