Cookeville Regional Medical Center’s Finance Committee approved the purchase of a new aquablation system used for prostate care Tuesday.
Chief Medical Officer Bruce Johnson said urologists are calling the system “the future of urology,” as it uses ultrasounds and cystoscopy to create and carry out treatment plans with water jets. Johnson said the system has much better results on incontinence and impotence in the procedures where it is used.
“I mean it’s just a great step forward,” Johnson said. “When you go, the (Clavien Dindo Scale of Surgical Complications), way lower bleeding, way lower. Compared to a TURP, it takes about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes.”
Chief Financial Officer Tommye Rena Wells said the purchase will keep the hospital competitive as the hospital in Crossville will be getting the same system at the end of the month. Wells said there are already thirteen patients of Cookeville Regional who are waiting on the new equipment for their treatment.
The $500,000 purchase will be considered by the hospital’s Board of Trustees at the board’s Thursday meeting.
“Hopefully in about a month, month and a half we will be able to have this system here and have our physicians trained and that operational,” Wells said.
Wells said the maintenance cost for the system is $50,000 for four years with the first year included for free. Wells said the disposable tools required to use the system cost $4,100 per case but her pro forma analysis shows the hospital will still profit about $660 per case.
“It’s just obnoxious,” Medical Staff President Joseph Jestus said. “You know, a $4,100 part that probably costs them $100 to make. They know how much the DRG is. They know exactly how much it is.”
Wells said hospital staff requested the equipment last year, but Johnson said the hospital saved some $121,000 by waiting. Johnson said this system would replace the transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) treatment method.
“We have also had to send patients to Nashville because we have patients in urology asking for this specific procedure with this device,” Wells said. “But we did also works with the vendor, I can’t tell you all the other cases but it’s more than just the TURPs.”
Johnson said the latest study on aquablation finished in December of 2024 and had only two people with bleeding issues that had to be addressed further across the whole multi-center trial group.
