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Melanie Cole (Host): Greenville Health System’s Patewood Memorial Hospital has been recognized as one of the best hospitals for 2016-2017 in orthopedic s by US News & World Report. The hospital is ranked number 19 in the nation in orthopedics and is the only hospital in the state to be ranked in this specialty. My guest today is Beverly Haines. She’s the President of Patewood Memorial campus. Welcome to the show, Beverly. Tell us about Patewood Memorial Hospital and what’s so special about it.

Beverly Haines (Guest): Good afternoon. What’s so special about Patewood? First of all, it is a surgical short-stay hospital. It’s licensed for 72 beds. It opened in June of 2007. It does not have an emergency room. Our specialty is surgical patients. We really do not manage medical patients. Certainly, if a patient were to be admitted to the hospital and have a medical condition, we certainly are able to manage it, but that is not really our specialty. The hospital, in terms of the facility design, is based on Planetee model. That was something that was known back in 2000. It has a lot of lighting, waterfalls, even palm trees. It’s very quiet. When our patients say you walk into the hospital, you would not know that it is, indeed, a hospital. It seems more like a hotel. We’ve hidden all the clinical activities behind walls. So, it gives you the appearance of being that of a hotel. And, our whole idea of that is to promote a healing environment.

Melanie: So, what are some of the main conditions as an orthopedic hospital that you deal with there?

Beverly: Main conditions? Well, our surgical specialty is not just orthopedics, but that is our primary specialty. For orthopedics, it’s a center of excellence for total joint replacement and that includes hips, knees and shoulders. We also do endocrine surgery, predominantly thyroidectomies, breast surgery, including reconstruction, plastic surgery and gyn surgery. I am pleased to say in 2017, we will also add a low-risk obstetrics newborn unit and also add four additional operating room because predominantly our total joint replacement program is continuing to grow.

Melanie: Does a patient need to have a special referral to come to Patewood?

Beverly: Not a special referral. Almost of the patients go through our physician team that specializes in orthopedics, but, certainly, as you know, today patients are going online and looking up at the information about a hospital and then they make the appointment and call those physicians. All of that is online under Patewood Memorial Hospital.

Melanie: Tell us about your physicians at Patewood.

Beverly: Our physicians are outstanding. They certainly are all certified in their specialty. What’s really good about the physicians is that they don’t do all total types of joints. They are specialized in a particular one. So, we have physicians that just specialize in total hips. We have physicians that specialize in knees and hips. We have some physicians that just specialize in shoulders. So, that’s a good thing because then you know you’re getting those who are just repeatedly excellent in that particular specialty.

Melanie: And, tell us about the staff as well--the nurses and allied health staff members--who help these physicians.

Beverly: Second to none. I believe that the collaboration between the nurses and these physicians is outstanding. They have such a rapport. What I often say is, if the nurse here at Patewood speaks up and contacts a physicians. There is no chasing them down. The physicians so respect the nurses and what they able to observe and when they receive a phone call from the nurse, they trust that what they’re saying is absolute correct and they respond. The collaborative relationship between the nurses and the physicians, as I said, is outstanding.

Melanie: And, is there is follow-up care with Patewood if you’ve had hip replacement there? Can you go there for therapy as well?

Beverly: Oh, yes. You can definitely go there for therapy. And, prior to having your surgery, you also have a therapy session. So, that the therapist gets to know you prior to that. We also have what we call “total joint classes” and all of our patients attend those classes. That’s how we get their engagement in their own care. Starting prior to surgery, several weeks out we do a head to toe assessment of them. They sit in the class. They’re’re able to ask questions. We give them a booklet so they can read that. We also give them some of the cleansing aid so that they can clean their area prior to coming. And, also, the physicians who are going to be taking care of them come to the class at the end of the class so that they can ask some very specific questions before they have the surgery. So, our patients are well-educated, know exactly what to expect in their surgical experience and it really does, indeed, make a difference given our HCAHP scores and our patients’ experience, results being so positive. What’s good about it is the physician team gets together and they agree upon what apparatus is best to use and they also, I must say, look at the cost implication for that. They try to do value-based purchasing and so they agree upon what apparatus’ they should use that is going to be the most beneficial and yet keep the cost down and maintain the quality.

Melanie: And, what about the areas for the patient’s family while they wait for their loved ones in surgery?

Beverly: First of all, every patient has what we call a “designated caregiver” and that person is responsible. They’ve been identified prior to that. The patients of the family are welcome to come to the hospital with them. They’re welcome to stay overnight with them. When the surgery is done, we do have one or two family members actually go into the recovery room so that they can see that their loved one is doing just fine. Their loved one stays in recovery room, on average, about an hour. And then, our rooms are set up and designed even with a sofa bed that opens up and that family member or members are welcome to stay the night. We even have a hostess from our food and nutrition department that comes up and asks them what they would like from the menu and we are also able to serve the family in the room.

Melanie: Would you please just wrap it up for us and tell us about Patewood Memorial Hospital and why it’s so special? Let the listeners know why you care about those campus so much.

Beverly: Definitely because we have a commitment to excellence as our theme. We are very concerned about the patient’s care, the patient’s experience, the staff are totally engaged. I also say it’s in their DNA. Our clinical outcomes are outstanding. Our patient satisfaction score, likewise, had been outstanding. And, if they want to know more about Patewood, they certainly can go online, and look it up. They can call any one of us any time, and we would be able to share with them what our experience has been. But, it’s been second to none.

Melanie: Thank you so much, Beverly, for being with us today. You’re listening to Inside Health with Greenville Health System. For more information, you can go to www.ghs.org. That’s www.ghs.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.