New Brazilian general hospital flaunts GE-heavy top-end medtech
This article was originally published in Clinica
This month sees the opening in Sao Paulo, Brazil, of Hospital Villa-Lobos, a private centre said to feature a "complete package" of GE Healthcare systems. The CEMA group, which owns the R$42m (US$21.3m) newly-built general hospital, reportedly invested R$12m in medical technology for its 14 "fully equipped" operating rooms and imaging (MRI, CT and ultrasound), endoscopy, interventional radiology, haemodynamics and pathology departments.
A third of the equipment-specific investment, some R$12m, is said to have been spent on 78 units supplied by GE, including: three Centiva Plus and 10 Engstrom critical care ventilation units (for adult and paediatric use, respectively); five Aespire anaesthetisation and ventilation workstations; nine Dash 4000 and 21 Dash 3000 multiparameter vital signs monitors for use in ICU and OR; five CardioServ ECG defibrillation units; and four MAC 500 portable resting ECG analysis units.
The Villa-Lobos has an outpatient capacity of 20,000 A&E cases per month and an inpatient capacity of 200 (including 20 ICU and 20 HDU) beds. It is located in the Mooca district of the city's eastern zone, where CEMA group and its original facility - the CEMA ophthalmology and ear, nose and throat institute, now a national reference centre for these specialisms - is headquartered.
CEMA says that the necessary service agreements are in place to ensure it supports "virtually all" the national healthcare programmes of the SUS state system. This effectively means state reimbursement for a significant proportion of the primary and secondary needs of, Clinica understands, around 2 million people in the area (a tenth of the city's 20 million plus population).