If you still measure a video monitor in inches and pixels (bigger is better) and assign its picture quality an alphanumeric grade — 3D, HD, 4K/UHD or 8K — it might be time to see screens in a different LED light. There's more to a surgical display than enhanced vertical-by-horizontal screen resolution. Read on if your old monitor can't display cartoons and consents.

1. Displays have transformed into Jumbotrons

Besides showing immersive close up shots of surgery, you can project virtually anything onto today's gigantastic screens — a consent form or an H&P, safe surgery checklists (so everyone is more engaged during time outs), as well as serene nature scenes to help keep patients calm when they're brought into the OR or cartoons to distract children before they're anesthetized.

Displays can even help your OR team set up cases properly. During room turnover at Sanford Medical Center Fargo (N.D.), they display the surgeon's preference card on one big screen and either a video or a picture of what the back table setup should look like on the other big screen. Each OR is outfitted with 4 monitors: a pair of 26-inch monitors that hang on booms around the OR table and 2 55-inch big screens mounted on walls that face the patient's feet and side. "Displaying surgeons' preference cards on a 55-inch monitor creates a real wow factor when they walk into the room," says Stacy Lund, BSN, RN, CNOR, MSSL, the director of surgical services. "It also provides stunning visual proof that the team is focused on that particular case and is ready to meet the surgeons' equipment needs."

Stanford Medical's ORs are integrated with its electronic medical records, says Ms. Lund, so they can make on-the-spot changes to the digital preference cards and display the updates in real time on the big screen.

2. Multi-image displays

Large screens that can display images and input from more than one device simultaneously let surgeons observe and monitor a range of information quickly. The monitors at Stanford Medical, for example, can display images from up to 6 different inputs — including images from the laparoscopic camera, ultrasound or C-arm scans, and the patient's vital signs, says Ms. Lund.

Circulating nurses serve as the directors of a live televised surgidrama, managing the multi-image displays in each OR using a touchscreen tablet to pan, zoom or freeze an image. They simply tap "microscope" and "monitor 2" to beam the microscope's image to one of the 2 big screens in the room.

Picture-in-picture, picture-by-picture, and split- and quad-split-screen capability provides the team with a complete update of the procedure and the patient's condition with just a quick glance up at a monitor, says Ms. Lund. Projecting a CT scan or an X-ray into the corner of the screen is incredibly helpful because it means you have access to additional information that can affect the decisions you make, all without you having to leave the sterile field, says Miroslav Uchal, MD, FACS, FASMBC, the director of bariatric surgery at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Jacksonville, Fla.

3. Surgical surveillance

Managers can use the integrated in-light cameras to peer into each room for a live look-in to track a case's progress. They can also use the built-in mics to talk directly to the team members to know exactly when patients are being moved to the PACU and when the next patient should start moving in from pre-op. Those real-time updates let managers alert room turnover teams and help keep the day's schedule on track, says Ms. Lund. Staff in the admitting area and the PACU also have access to the in-room camera, so they can track the day's action and plan care in their areas accordingly. That enhanced communication helps managers in several departments track the progress of cases and make scheduling adjustments.

Tracy Helmer, RN, BSN, manager at Henderson (Nev.) Hospital Outpatient Center, says pulling the video feed from another room gives his docs a bird's-eye-view of another room. "If a doctor is working in Room 1 and his next patient is being wheeled into in Room 2, we can pull the video feed from Room 2 into Room 1 so that he can see when that patient is in the room getting prepped," says Mr. Helmer.

On full display

Don't think of it as monitor shopping. These days a monitor should not be purchased in isolation as a standalone component, says Seth Sherman, MD, co-division director of sports medicine and associate professor at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. "The monitor is the final end piece of the puzzle — the display selected to let you gain the greatest benefit from a carefully integrated video system," says Dr. Sherman. OSM