Simulated hospital center would be first of its kind

Primary care doctors could use the proposed facility for training.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. June 28, 2004.

An ambitious plan has been launched to create the Chicago Regional Medical Simulation Center, a complete simulated hospital environment that would be available for training and assessment of physicians, medical teams and paramedics throughout the Midwest.

The project is being led by anesthesiologist Stephen D. Small, MD, the director of the University of Chicago's Developing Center for Patient Safety, who said it would be the first civilian adoption of a $20 million combat trauma patient safety simulation system developed by the U.S. military.

"It's not about a big building with 100 simulators. It's about event management and a system of care," said Dr. Small. "There will be ER, OR and recovery simulations, even simulated elevator trips, and then threading it all together."

Dr. Small worked at the simulation centers at both Harvard and Stanford universities, but said he was frustrated by the slow growth of simulation in the general medical settings.

He said Chicago may be the ideal site for a regional simulation center because of its proximity to potential users, the robust research environment that includes Argonne National Laboratory and several universities, and the number of health care "standard setting and policy-making" organizations headquartered there.

"I can name 60 hospitals within an hour of where I'm standing," Dr. Small said. "But how many can afford $20 million to do this? Zero."