Kootenai Health Brings Region's First da Vinci 5 Robotic Surgery System to Coeur d'Alene

Katie Chaffin is not a surgeon, but on Tuesday she peered into a headset-like console at Kootenai Health, squeezed a pair of hand controllers, and watched a robotic instrument across the room delicately lift a tiny rubber ring and set it on a cone. "It felt intuitive," said Chaffin, a project manager at Kootenai Health. The moment captured what hospital leaders spent April 8 trying to make concrete for North Idaho patients: Coeur d'Alene now has the da Vinci 5, the newest robotic surgical platform from Intuitive Surgical and the first installed at any hospital in the region.

No hospital in Spokane has it yet. That gap matters directly for Kootenai County patients who have historically traveled west on I-90 for complex minimally invasive procedures. Medical Director Cory Richardson was direct about the intent. "A lot of people think that they need to go to some major city in order to have the newest medical techniques and advancements," Richardson said. "And here, locally, we have top notch, highly trained surgeons utilizing the newest equipment out there."

Surgeons have already begun training on the system and plan to use it on patients in May. Kootenai Health already operates two older da Vinci platforms and holds the Robotic Surgery Center of Excellence Designation from the Surgical Review Corporation, making its program one of the more experienced in the Inland Northwest. The da Vinci 5 received FDA 510(k) clearance in March 2024. Its redesigned surgeon console allows customizable positioning and the ability to sit fully upright during procedures, an ergonomic advance that matters across long or complex cases.

Dr. Ken Helal, an OB-GYN at Kootenai Health, argued the upgrade carries consequences beyond any single procedure. "Technologically, it's very advanced. That brings in surgeons with more experience," Helal said. "I think nowadays, almost everybody coming out of training has trained on the robot. To get new doctors, if you don't have this equipment, you're not going to be able to bring them to the area."

Kootenai Health has not announced whether robotic cases performed on the da Vinci 5 will carry different patient costs than those done on its existing platforms. The hospital has not released projected annual case volumes for the new system. As surgeons complete credentialing over the coming weeks, community physicians who refer surgical patients to Kootenai Health will receive updated guidance on which procedures qualify for the new platform, covering specialties including gynecology, urology and general surgery.

Ryan Ciardo, a clinical representative for Intuitive, led visitors through hands-on demonstrations at the open house, guiding participants as they translated small wrist movements into precise instrument action across the room. For Kootenai County patients, the practical measure of success will arrive in May, when the first surgical cases begin, and in the months that follow, as the hospital tracks whether local robotic volume grows enough to make the trip to Spokane genuinely unnecessary.