Prior Lake, MN – Patients with complex surgical needs will benefit from the new Uroskop Omnia C-Arm Surgical Table at St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Shakopee, Minnesota, which the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community helped fund with a $250,000 grant.

This surgical table comes with a built in x-ray tube and detector that moves synchronously allowing for multiple views of a surgery without the need to move the patient or the surgeon from one side to the other during the operation.  The table provides for both diagnostic and therapeutic examinations and interventions. Urologists will extensively use this new surgical table to perform urological, kidney, and prostate surgeries, including those for prostate cancer. This new table will also be in demand for use by gastroenterologist and gynecologists for their surgical needs.

The advantages of this new table for physicians, patients and the community are many:

• Enables the diagnosis and treatment of symptoms in one location and improves patient outcomes.
• Convenient for local residents and reduces the time patients and physicians lose in scheduling and traveling to other facilities to have procedures performed.
• Enables St. Francis to treat the local urological patients that were previously referred to other facilities for surgical procedures. About 100 additional patients are expected to have their surgeries performed at St. Francis in the first year of the new table’s use. 
• Offers an imaging system with a broader depth of field, crisper images, and smaller base where the doctor can operate on either side of the patient.
• Allows surgeons to take high-quality pictures of what is being done during a surgery.
• Reduces patient post-surgery anxiety and aids in their recovery by giving the doctor the images to use to detail all the steps taken along the way of a procedure.
• Reduces the amount of radiation a patient is exposed to versus the previous ways by 50%.
• Saves lives by helping physicians identify and treat problems encountered in various surgeries earlier.

SMSC Chairman Charlie Vig spoke about the donation.  “We were pleased to provide St. Francis Regional Medical Center with funding that helped with the purchase of this surgical table.  St. Francis has a history of being there for our Community members and their families in their time of need, and now we are able to come to their assistance as they work to find better ways to care for their patients.  It is our Dakota tradition to help others when we can, and we are happy to help today.”  

“St. Francis is excited about how this generosity on the part of SMSC will benefit our patients with complex surgical needs for years to come.  SMSC has been an excellent partner with St. Francis in serving our communities,” said Dr. Brian Prokosch.

A longstanding relationship between the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and St. Francis Regional Medical Center of Shakopee, Minnesota, was formalized through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in May 2012.

In previous years, SMSC grants totaling $1,705,000 helped fund construction of a new emergency room for St. Francis and of a chapel, outdoor meditation area, and Circle of Life Suites for hospice care for St. Gertrude’s.