Last-generation medical equipment for the Central Clinical Military Hospital

Although the access to the courtyard of the Central Clinical Military Hospital has a security checkpoint, the patients have free and unrestricted access to hospital’s healthcare services.

The hospital primarily serves the military, civil servants and retired military personnel of the Ministry of Defence and their family members, as well as all the Moldovan citizens who are looking for treatment.

As good news travels fast, patients come with even more confidence to pass a chest Xray examination or get hospitalized for surgical interventions.

"The equipment the hospital was previously equipped with was quite old, from the Soviet period, which did not allow us to carry out all the necessary investigations. The purchased modern equipment enables us to provide qualified medical assistance and high performant diagnostic methods and treatment, which will increase the demand for medical services,” says colonel Valentin Trofimov, medical-chief of the Central Clinical Military Hospital.

Routine radiographs, faster and more accurate

Upon enlisting into military service, as well as upon release from service, soldiers and military officers have to mandatory pass the chest X-ray examination. With the digital radiological device delivered in November 2018, both the time spent in the examination

room and the irradiation rate have decreased.

The head of the imaging room of the Central Clinical Military Hospital, Victoria Șova remembers how she has been dealing with the old equipment for one year and a half, before it had been replaced with a semi-digital device: “The old device was equipped with three tapes, and their removal, printing and image processing was taking quite some time. Currently, with the new device, this happens five times faster,” says the radiologist.

Now, with the same device, four types of investigations can be performed, from “simple" radiography to radioscopy, tomosynthesis involving 3D imagery or even computed tomography using the SLOT method and combining portions showing a broader image,

like that of the spinal column. “Before, when the full image of the spinal column was needed, the patient had to be irradiated three to four times in segments: cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and again for the full picture. The examination now is done instantly

with a single dose of irradiation.”

The head of the imaging room says that such investigations are mainly used to diagnose scoliosis and to determine its degree to assess the ability to perform the military service.

"The new equipment is easier to operate with. If something goes wrong during the investigation, you can access the menu automatically, without bothering the patient to go over it to change the settings. There is no need for the patient to get undressed until the film develops, as before, to see whether or not the examination was successful,” says Victoria Sova.

Surgical tables, friendlier to doctors and patients

The Surgical Department of the Central Clinical Military Hospital, where five to six surgeries per day are performed, has been endowed with a multifunctional surgical table that allows patient’s positioning according to each individual case.

"The multifunctional surgical table is performant and of the last-generation one. Being recently in Germany, I was pleasantly surprised to see the same type of surgical tables in the operating theatre,” says Alexandru Dima, head of the department.

The new table that the Military Hospital received in August 2018 has several advantages for both the physician and the patient, according to Alexandru Dima: “The table allows the surgeon to position the patient in an ergonomic posture during the surgery, to work in a simpler way with minimal effort. The surgeon does not feel too tired after the intervention.”

The multifunctional surgical table is used by both surgeons and traumatologists, explains Alexandru Dima: “The new surgical table allows for a wider range of surgeries, including shoulder endoprosthesis.”

At the Central Clinical Military Medical Hospital, six out of ten interventions are of a high degree of complexity. At the same time, each second surgery is minimally invasive.

Automated sterilization from A to Z

Since November 2018, the Surgical Department has been equipped with an autoclave for medical instruments’ sterilization.

“The device is computerized and has around 26 different programs designed for each type of working material, such as fine plastics, fine ceramics and others. The autoclave has the ability to manage the whole process from A to Z, automated, without human

involvement,” says the surgeon Alexandru Dima.

The minimum sterilization cycle lasts an hour and a half, and the maximum does not exceed three and a half hours. Previously, the hospital used semiautomatic devices, requiring ongoing monitoring of the process.

“The new autoclave ensures the safety of a qualitative sterilization, being more energy efficient,” says the head of the Surgical Department of the Central Clinical Military Hospital.

“You couldn’t even breathe after six anesthesias, at the end of the day”

Since the surgeries come in tandem with an anesthetic dose, the hospital was equipped with a modern anesthetic machine in October 2018. The old equipment had a very high consumption of anesthetic agents, as some of these were lost during the surgery.

“An anesthetic bottle is now used for two weeks and a half. Before, it was being consumed in a week. Therefore, it is now twice as cost-effective, and we do not pollute the operating room. Previously, after six anesthesias, at the end of the day, you couldn’t even breathe. Now we protect our colleagues and the surrounding air, and we use the anesthetic more properly,” says Ina Moldovan, head of the Anesthesia and Intensive Care Unit of the Central Clinical Military Hospital.

Being informed about the performance of the anesthesia machine, now the patients are more reliant on medical services: “When they enter the operating room, patients are briefed on devices we work with, on how fast they will fall asleep and how quickly they will awaken. Thus, they feel safer,” says Ina Moldovan.

The device monitors vital body functions, such as pulse, tension, oxygen saturation, CO2 content in inhaled/exhaled air. It also provides data on the anesthetic’s concentration in blood during patient’s breathing while operating.

“It's a very safe anesthesia machine. Any deviation is displayed on the screen visually and audibly and it is very easy to operate with it,” emphasizes Ina Moldovan, Head of the Anesthesia and Intensive Care Unit.

The anesthetic machine can be used for patients of all ages: from new-borns to the elderly.

The Central Clinical Military Hospital has 20 departments and cabinets. The institution was established in 1992 on the basis of the former military hospital of the Chisinau garrison, which was activating in the Soviet period.

The UNDP has also purchased medical equipment for the Medical Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.