https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/13/inside-simvet-a-43-million-veterans-affairs-simulation-hospital.html Skip Navigation logo * watchlive logo Markets * Pre-Markets * U.S. Markets * Currencies * Cryptocurrency * Futures & Commodities * Bonds * Funds & ETFs Business * Economy * Finance * Health & Science * Media * Real Estate * Energy * Climate * Transportation * Industrials * Retail * Wealth * Sports * Life * Small Business Investing * Personal Finance * Fintech * Financial Advisors * Options Action * ETF Street * Buffett Archive * Earnings * Trader Talk Tech * Cybersecurity * Enterprise * Internet * Media * Mobile * Social Media * CNBC Disruptor 50 * Tech Guide Politics * White House * Policy * Defense * Congress * Equity and Opportunity CNBC TV * Live TV * Live Audio * Business Day Shows * Entertainment Shows * Full Episodes * Latest Video * Top Video * CEO Interviews * CNBC Documentaries * CNBC Podcasts * CNBC World * Digital Originals * Live TV Schedule Watchlist * Trust Portfolio * Analysis * Trade Alerts * Meeting Videos * Homestretch * Jim's Columns * Education * Subscribe * Sign In * Pro News * Pro Live * Full Episodes * Stock Screener * Market Forecast * Options Investing * Chart Investing * Subscribe * Sign In Menu * Make It * select + ALL SELECT + Credit Cards + Loans + Banking + Mortgages + Insurance + Credit Monitoring + Personal Finance + Small Business + Taxes + Help for Low Credit Scores + Investing + SELECT + All Credit Cards + Find the Credit Card for You + Best Credit Cards + Best Rewards Credit Cards + Best Travel Credit Cards + Best 0% APR Credit Cards + Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards + Best Cash Back Credit Cards + Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses + Best Credit Cards to Build Credit + SELECT + All Loans + Find the Best Personal Loan for You + Best Personal Loans + Best Debt Consolidation Loans + Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt + Best Loans with Fast Funding + Best Small Personal Loans + Best Large Personal Loans + Best Personal Loans to Apply Online + Best Student Loan Refinance + SELECT + All Banking + Find the Savings Account for You + Best High Yield Savings Accounts + Best Big Bank Savings Accounts + Best Big Bank Checking Accounts + Best No Fee Checking Accounts + No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts + Best Checking Account Bonuses + Best Money Market Accounts + Best CDs + Best Credit Unions + SELECT + All Mortgages + Best Mortgages + Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment + Best Mortgages for No Down Payment + Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee + Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score + Adjustable Rate Mortgages + Affording a Mortgage + SELECT + All Insurance + Best Life Insurance + Best Homeowners Insurance + Best Renters Insurance + Best Car Insurance + Travel Insurance + SELECT + All Credit Monitoring + Best Credit Monitoring Services + Best Identity Theft Protection + How to Boost Your Credit Score + Credit Repair Services + SELECT + All Personal Finance + Best Budgeting Apps + Best Expense Tracker Apps + Best Money Transfer Apps + Best Resale Apps and Sites + Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps + Best Debt Relief + SELECT + All Small Business + Best Small Business Savings Accounts + Best Small Business Checking Accounts + Best Credit Cards for Small Business + Best Small Business Loans + Best Tax Software for Small Business + SELECT + All Taxes + Filing For Free + Best Tax Software + Best Tax Software for Small Businesses + Tax Refunds + Tax Brackets + Tax Tips + Tax By State + Tax Payment Plans + SELECT + All Help for Low Credit Scores + Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit + Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit + Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit + Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit + Best Credit Cards for Building Credit + Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower + Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower + Best Mortgages for Bad Credit + Best Hardship Loans + How to Boost Your Credit Score + SELECT + All Investing + Best IRA Accounts + Best Roth IRA Accounts + Best Investing Apps + Best Free Stock Trading Platforms + Best Robo-Advisors + Index Funds + Mutual Funds + ETFs + Bonds * USA * INTL * watchlive Search quotes, news & videos Watchlist SIGN IN logo Markets Business Investing Tech Politics CNBC TV Watchlist Menu Tech Inside the $43 million Veterans Affairs simulation hospital where doctors are piloting new tech Published Sat, Jul 13 202410:00 AM EDT thumbnail Ashley Capoot@in/ashley-capoot-02496b173/ WATCH LIVE Key Points * Health-care workers at the VA are piloting technology and simulating procedures in a $43 million Florida-based facility called SimVET. * SimVET looks and feels like a real hospital, but no human patients receive care there. * The building serves as a dedicated space where clinicians can test new ideas without putting people in harm's way. * CNBC visited SimVET in March. An operating room at SimVET Courtesy: SimVET Inside a sprawling $43 million Veterans Affairs facility equipped with operating rooms, intensive care units and an outpatient clinic, there are no patients. At least not any real ones. The 53,000-square-foot building sits minutes away from the Orlando International Airport in Florida, and it's called the National Center for Simulation Validation, Evaluation and Testing, or SimVET. It serves as the primary hub where teams of front-line health-care workers from the VA travel to practice procedures and pilot new technologies, all without posing unnecessary risks to patients. For instance, if a team of clinicians wants to adjust their response to opioid overdoses or test out a new artificial intelligence tool, they can repeatedly simulate the process at SimVET. VA officials told CNBC that by practicing in a controlled environment, health-care workers can iron out problems and ensure that new ideas are feasible and safe to implement. SimVET, which opened in 2016, serves as an example of how simulation within health care has become increasingly common and more sophisticated in recent years. As health systems are looking to evaluate hundreds of new AI tools that have recently arrived on the market, facilities like SimVET can help cut through the noise. The SimVET facility in Orlando, Florida Courtesy: SimVET The Veterans Health Administration services 9 million veterans in 172 medical centers across the U.S. Each medical center has a simulation program, and some have a dedicated space on site. The SimVET facility in Orlando is the largest simulation center within the VA "by far," and also one of the biggest in the country, said Dr. Scott Wiltz, the medical director of the VA's Simulation Learning, Evaluation, Assessment and Research Network, or SimLEARN. Simulating high-risk scenarios is a fixture of the military and industries like aviation, where pilots can spend hours practicing in flight simulators. In health care, hospital systems and medical schools have long relied on professional actors to help train doctors, and virtual reality headsets are becoming an increasingly popular tool for practicing surgeries. But SimVET goes a step further. The goal is usually to get "as close [to] a level of realism as possible," Wiltz told CNBC in an interview. "The operating rooms are a great example," Wiltz said. "We have two fully staffed operating rooms, all the equipment you would normally use: lights, booms, real anesthesia machines. We even have a mannequin that responds realistically to the anesthesia." CNBC visited SimVET in March, and the mannequins are a true fixture of the facility. They sport a range of skin tones, hairstyles and facial features, and some are programmed to speak, move and develop complications. An "older" mannequin at the facility has wrinkles and more pronounced veins, and another can give "birth" to a "baby" mannequin. Wiltz said the figures are supposed to represent the VA's population of veterans as well as the broader population of the country at large. There are "well over" two dozen mannequins at the facility, he said. A mannequin at the SimVET facility Courtesy: SimVET Beyond its unusual patients, SimVET is home to many familiar-looking health-care scenes. Fluorescent lights line a long hallway full of exam rooms, and operating rooms stuffed with machinery look like they were plucked straight from a nearby hospital. To an unsuspecting visitor, the facility would look a lot like a real medical center. The building's many classrooms and educational spaces are the only slight giveaway. "The diversity of the space that we have, the realism that it brings, it really gives you the complete feeling that you can actually take care of patients in that building," Wiltz said. "And we do, it's just that our patients are mannequins and actors." A space to 'fail safely' The SimVET building in Orlando, Florida Coutesy: SimVET Wiltz said there are around 60 full-time staffers at SimVET, and they are usually tackling several pilots and projects at a time. National program offices and front-line workers within the VA will approach SimVET with ideas for simulations, and sometimes employees at the facility are struck by inspiration themselves, he said. SimVET is able to offer services with funding directly through the VA, so Wiltz said it often makes more sense for these groups to come to them instead of trying to pay someone outside of the government. Amanda Borchers, a patient safety manager at the Lexington VA Medical Center in Kentucky, was part of a surgical emergency team that visited SimVET in May of last year. She said they were looking to improve their response to unexpected complications that can come up during surgery, so they reached out to SimVET with ideas in the winter of 2023. Borchers said some of the more high-risk veterans in her population have breathing, heart, circulation problems that can cause sudden issues during procedures. Her team wanted to develop a new protocol to better prepare for some of those challenges, like how to quickly retrieve blood and bring it to an operating room. SimVET leadership helped Borchers and her four other teammates write up several simulations ahead of their arrival on site, and they were also connected with a number of field experts from across the country. The team spent a busy week at the SimVET facility: Their first day began around a drawing board promptly at 7 a.m., and then they spent hours walking through different procedures and talking through problems with the experts and SimVET employees. "You can fail, but fail safely, and then you use that to make a change. And then you do it again. And then you do it again," Borchers told CNBC in an interview. "The transformation, and what we would be able to do in an unanticipated emergency, was amazing." Borchers said she had participated in simulations before, but she had never experienced anything that compared to SimVET. She said the facility mimics the environment she works in every day, which allowed her to practice "every single detail" of what she does routinely. "It is exactly the same," she said. "You really could perform a surgery right then, right there." An intensive care unit room at SimVET Courtesy: SimVET When the week came to a close, Borchers and her team left SimVET with the framework for a brand-new medical code, which is a facility-wide response to a specific type of emergency. For instance, TV shows and movies often reference "code blue," where health-care workers spring into action after a patient goes into cardiac or respiratory arrest. Borchers said the new code the team developed would be called out in the overhead speakers as a "code SET," which stands for "surgical emergency team." She said it is designed to alert a dedicated team that provides support when unexpected complications occur during or immediately after a surgery. SimVET gave Borchers and her teammates the initial practice and assurance they needed for their idea, but they still had to get the rest of the Lexington VA Medical Center on board. They pitched the code to their executive leadership, and they began to finalize exactly which people and resources would respond to it. Borchers said the medical center began to carry out its own simulations and continued to fine-tune the code within small pockets of the hospital throughout the fall. They expanded their testing in the spring and began conducting facility-wide simulations with the code. The medical center is currently updating its paging system, and Borchers said the facility will simulate the code again once the new system is in place. If everything goes according to plan, code SET will be in use with real patients in the next two to three months. Borchers said her ultimate goal is to see code SET used in VA medical centers across the country, and staff from states including Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas have already participated in simulated trainings. Wiltz said the code is on its way to becoming a national program at the VA. "Fortunately, this didn't come from an adverse event, but it came from people saying, 'You know what, we're doing things pretty well, but we think we can do it even better,'" Wiltz said. 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