New Surgery Robot Brings Latest Technology to Caribou Medical Center

Erika Dannelly, CMC Director of Development & Marketing

When my young family and I moved to Soda Springs almost 4 years ago, I was a little hesitant about living in such a small town. I had lived in Southeast Idaho before, and loved it, but never anywhere where the population was fewer than 50,000 people.

I was used to having amenities – restaurants, big box stores, rec centers, parks, museums, public transportation, even Uber Eats! How was I supposed to survive without a Target or a Chick fil A?

Four years into living here and I am happy to report that I don’t need a Walmart or McDonald’s within a 5 mile drive of my house to survive. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that, not only am I surviving without those amenities, I am thriving here and love living in place as small as
Soda Springs.

There are far more benefits to living in a rural community than I could’ve imagined and I’ve come to find out that our community isn’t as lacking in amenities as I once believed. We have everything we need right here.

One of the best amenities we have available to us here is our hospital. Caribou Medical Center (CMC) is a great facility, with an incredible staff and a full scope of services. I am proud to call myself an
employee there.

You may not be aware that Caribou Medical Center has a robust surgery program, with a team of some of the best physicians and specialists around, who are focused on best meeting the needs of our community.

We are excited to share that we are expanding our capabilities in minimally invasive robotic surgery to meet the growing demands of our patients. CMC has brought in the newest and improved state-of-the-art da Vinci 5 Surgical System.

This system is a surgical robot and our facility is the first in the state of Idaho and in the neighboring states of Utah, Wyoming, and Montana to have one.

Executives and physicians at CMC decided to invest in this advancement in robotic surgery based on the benefits to patients and surgeons alike. These benefits and improvements
include:

• Enhanced surgical senses with Force Feedback technology, which restores a sense of touch to robotic surgery, resulting in gentler surgery and up to 43% less force on tissue

• Surgeon autonomy, resulting in reduced OR times

• Improved ergonomics and greater range of motion, which reduces physical strain on surgeons during surgery

• The best vision system da Vinci offers, with better color, resolution, and depth perception and the most realistic 3D imaging available

The benefits you get from coming to our facility for service will be enhanced by this new tool. CMC continues to offer surgeons and patients flexible surgery times; ample anesthesia coverage; and of course consistent, friendly, and familiar staff.

The new robot arrived at our facility last week on September 11, and our first cases are scheduled for this week.

Dr. Retherford, one of our incredible surgeons here at CMC, has done over 500 surgeries on previous models of the da Vinci robot (both here at CMC and at other facilities) and is so excited to begin using this new robot.

He is confident its advancements are going to be beneficial to all of his patients, here and in surrounding communities. The main goal behind this new technology is better patient outcomes, and we are all excited to start delivering on that.

If you have any questions, you can reach out to me at [email protected].