Announcement of an Exempt Purchase

Intuitive offers medical equipment and supplies used during minimally invasive robotic surgery, a procedure performed through tiny incisions. The robotic system is used in conjunction with accessories and ancillaries such as fenestrated bipolar forceps, needle drivers, assembly forceps, drape kits cautery hook, and round-tip scissors. The surgical accessory may be decoupled from the robotic surgical tool inside the cavity. In some embodiments, the robotic surgical instrument is used to grasp the surgical accessory inside the patient's cavity. The surgical accessory is mated with the robotic surgical tool to form a mated connection during the surgical procedure. The surgical accessory may be coupled with the robotic surgical tool by introducing a second robotic surgical tool into the cavity and using it to facilitate the surgical accessory's coupling with the first surgical tool. The Intuitive robotic surgical instruments can treat tissue with heat produced by electrical energy while cutting, shearing, grasping, engaging, or contacting treatment tissue. The electrosurgical treatment may further reduce tissue bleeding by cauterizing tissue and coagulating blood or achieving various other desired effects on the treatment tissue. By providing electrosurgical cutting/shearing instruments for use with a robotic surgical system, the apparatus and methods of the present invention enable the advantages of electrosurgical cutting/shearing treatment to be combined with the benefits of minimally invasive robotic surgery.

This purchase is exempt from the usual selection processes of the Procurement Code because the procurement expenditure is for medical supplies or medical services necessary for the delivery of care and treatment at medical, dental, or veterinary teaching facilities utilized by SIU or U of I (30 ILCS 500 / 1-13(b-5)) The Intuitive da Vinci Surgical Robotic System has to do with direct patient care. Without the Intuitive da Vinci Surgical Robotic accessories and disposables, the Hospital could not offer robotic surgery or robotic-assisted surgery that would drive patients elsewhere and result in a loss of revenue to the Hospital.