HealthAug15

SPONSORED CONTENT
ELEVATING
the
Patient Experience
Memorial Hospital’s new Spine and Joint Center takes
a specialized concierge approach to patient care
By Nan Kavanaugh
It is 6 o’clock in the morning, and you lay in your hospital
bed awake, but groggy. You are less than 24 hours out of a
lengthy spine surgery, and wondering what medicine you had
been given. To your right, your wife is there, sitting quietly
at a desk typing away on her laptop. A nurse walks in, and
you ask her about the medication. Without even glancing at
your chart, she rattles off a short list and lets you know that
physical therapy will begin at 8 a.m. in the gym across the
hall. The nurse doesn’t need to read a note on a chart to tell
her where you are at in your recovery process, because she
has been by your side since your surgery the day before.
Stephen Scibelli, M.D.
Eleanor Lynch
At Memorial Hospital’s new
Spine and Joint Center,
patients will experience
specialized care in a
manner that will never leave them
questioning. From the moment you
make your first appointment, a highly
trained staff dedicated to providing
you with a streamlined optimal
experience will be there to support
you every step of the way.
“First and foremost, our approach is
to ask what would we do for ourselves,
and how would we do it?” says
Stephen Scibelli, M.D., Neurosurgeon
at Memorial Hospital. “We put the
best people with the best training in
those positions and dedicate them to
providing the best outcome for that
individual. We want the patient to be
able to understand the depth of care at
every level.”
Every member of the staff at the
Spine and Joint Center at Memorial
Hospital, from the highly specialized
surgeons, to the physical therapists,
to the nurses, is trained specifically
for neuro-ortho surgeries – from the
most complex procedures to the more
common back surgeries.
“Many hospitals rotate nurses
through different service lines, but
here you have a trained team focused
only on spine and joint surgical care,”
says Dr. Scibelli. “Think of it as taking
your car to a specialized car mechanic
as opposed to a general car mechanic.”
Recognizing that every patient’s
needs are different is essential to the
philosophy of the team at the Spine
and Joint Center, and being able to
meet those needs from the start of their
care cycle to the end is imperative.
A nurse navigator will act as a guide,
helping to educate both the patient
and their family about the process.
“It is not just enough to perform a
surgery anymore, but you have to
provide a full continuum of care,” says
Eleanor Lynch, Senior Vice President
of Operations at Memorial Hospital.
“You have to not only consider the
patient experience, but also the family
experience,” she says.
When you walk into the lobby of
the Spine and Joint Center you will
find yourself in a warm, comfortable
environment. The patient rooms are
being designed to create a sense of
home, not just for the patient, but also
for the comfort of the family member
or support person there to help.
“Some of this is about comfort,
but really it is about improving the
experience so the patient will maintain
a positive outlook, which can shape
recovery,” says Dr. Scibelli. “Patients
will be immediately put into a recovery
role, not a sick patient role.”