Best Docs Network Forest Park Medical Center Austin November 17 2013

Hello everybody IÄôm Karla Macias and we are back again for another edition of the Best Docs Network Featuring Forest Park Medical Center Austin. Of course Forest Park Medical Center is one of the top medical centers in the entire state of Texas where iÄôs your destination to better health. Forest Park Medical Center will be featuring some of the best doctors in the entire Austin area and will soon be operating in 2014, like our next doctor, urologist Dr. David Cuellar. Initially I had a elevated PSA and the doctor, my doctor then recommended I see a urologist. And I went to the urologist and because of the PSA which jumped up all of a sudden he said we better check it out. And so then they did the check and ran the biopsies and said oh, youÄôve got cancer of the prostate. Wayne was referred to me for an elevated PSA which is a blood test that we use to detect prostate cancer early. After he had his biopsies performed we discovered that he did have early stage prostate cancer. I spent a lot of time with the urologist trying to decide which solution was the best and discussed the radiation, the pills and then talked about removal of the prostate as the options. And so working with the urologist after much discussion, we decided the best thing to do was to have the prostate gland removed. Of the surgical options he elected the most common procedure thaÄôs performed today for prostate cancer which is a robotic radical prostatectomy. Most of the discussion was talking about the impacts of the operation. Dr. Cuellar is very patient in answering all of my questions. He gave a feeling that he was interested in your health and in making sure you understood all of the implications of the robotic surgery and the comparison. So I was very comfortable going to him to do the surgery after visiting with him. He recovered quickly, he went home in a day from the hospital. He regained his urinary control and his *** function within weeks to months and has kind of gone back to his normal routine. One of the reasons I wanted to go with robotics was because of the quick recovery process. I lead a active life and I needed to be able to feed cows and play golf and work with the grandkids so the recovery was very fast. The incisions themselves were small and I just doÄôt even remember any pain at all associated with it. I was back carrying my 50 pound sacks of feed to feed the cows seemed like just the next week. There are many advantages to robotic surgery. The key is to find a robotic surgeon who has great experience as you would with any surgeon whether it be open or robotic. I would recommend that anybody would seriously consider going the robotic route. Brittney has a question for Dr. Snyder. Do I have to have cancer for insurance to cover reconstruction surgery? One of the interesting things about breast reconstruction is there are actual federal laws that protect a womanÄôs right to have reconstruction. So if youÄôre having a mastectomy regardless of the cost whether iÄôs for cancer for a genetic risk, for breast pain, for lumps in your breast, whatever that reason may be, insurance companies are bound to pay for your reconstruction and the type of reconstruction of your choice so in this day and age itÄôs a non issue about having insurance cover breast reconstruction and thaÄôs whether you choose one or two ***. Did you know that in 2011 Forest Park Medical Center was voted as one of the top 20 most beautiful hospitals in the United States? Also Forest Park Medical Centers were the only hospital in Texas to make this prestigious list. All of the doctors at Forest Park Medical Center are dedicated to changing peopleÄôs lives whether iÄôs here locally in their communities or all around the world, just like Dr. Craig Hobar whoÄôs changing lives with the LEAP Foundation. The LEAP Foundation, weÄôve been here since 1991 and we have operated on more than 8,000 kids in more than 19 countries. Cleft lip and palate is our main operation but we identify needs and we provide pediatric neurology, we provide eye surgery, we provide ENT surgery, we take care of burn scar deformities. We really try and fill in the blanks of what is most needed in the particular country. We go on 6 to 8 trips a year. We routinely go to India, Central India, the poorest most remote part of India. We go to Zimbabwe and work in the childreÄôs hospital of that country. We go to Haiti multiple times a year because we started going there after the earthquake and developed deep relationships and just saw how many kids were in orphanages and had no access to surgical care. We go to Belize, wÄôve been going to Belize for 18 years, weÄôve been going to the Dominican Republic for 22 years. The most common procedure we do is cleft lip and palate because 1 of every 700 babies is born with this. Children doÄôt have a chance for a normal life if iÄôs not fixed. If you do the surgery then they have a chance for a perfectly normal life. I didÄôt start out in 1991 to build the LEAP Foundation, I went on a single mission trip and you know it convicted me personally that there was such a need out there that I wanted to help as many people as I could. But the excitement from the other doctors and nurses who developed the same passion is what convinced me that no, this wasÄôt a single mission trip, wÄôre going to go on another one and then you know God filled in the blanks. WeÄôre here 22 years later, weÄôve done more than 8,000 surgeries and you know the opportunities to help people just keep growing and we all do it because wÄôre helping other people but it also helps us too. It helps refresh us why we went into medicine in the first place but we do it with a world class quality, we donÄôt do anything in another country that we canÄôt do with world class quality equal to what we do here. Best Docs Network featuring Forest Park Medical Center is your destination to better health. WhaÄôs been so rewarding for me to be involved with Forest Park is that Äôve been in the business of helping physicians manage hospitals for 25 years and I have seen all the various models that have been associated over that period of time. IÄôve been involved in many different kinds of models and iÄôs been a pleasure for me to implement the model that I think works the best in this business and that is the majority physician owned model where the physicians are in control and govern their own hospital and have business partners like me who come in and help them run that business. But we focus on running the hospital the way that the unique aspects of that medical staff wants their hospital to be run. With the help of the doctors here and at all of our hospitals, we recruit the very best people in all different lines of work from the OR technicians, the floor nurses, quality directors, everyone who walks through this hospital has been very carefully considered. This basically gives our patients the best possible experience. They walk into this place and very quickly are eased of a lot of the stresses of surgery that you get in a cold sterile hospital environment. The people are very friendly, the place is very welcoming all around them and of course the quality of care is unsurpassed. What Forest Park means to a physician is that it provides a place for that physician to practice medicine where he or she is much more in control of their destiny, much more in control of the atmosphere that they practice medicine in. We provide our physicians with dedicated teams of nurses in the operating room who become familiar with the type of surgery that the physician does that makes the surgery go much quicker and enables us to get the room turned over quicker between cases so that the physicians can get more cases done. All of the physicians that I talk to tell me that they are able to get more cases done and in a more efficient manner than any other hospital they practice medicine in. As a physician, a surgeon actually, practicing here we start your cases on time, our turnover is very efficient, we have top quality staff to provide you with the people and the equipment necessary to really be state of the art in everything we do. The things that make Forest Park unique are our focus on whaÄôs best for the patient and whaÄôs best for the physician. WÄôre different in many ways from other organizations because our physicians are our owners, they are our bosses and to that end we want to do whatever we can to be sure that they get their needs met. WeÄôre here for them, theÄôre here for their patients and working together, wÄôre not fighting a bureaucracy, weÄôre not fighting a corporate office thaÄôs not even in the same state as us sometimes. WeÄôre making whatÄôs best for this hospital at this moment at that time. We doÄôt have to wait and thaÄôs what our physicians like, immediate results. As new things become available like the MAKO robot, some of the new technologies, Forest Park is very quick to want to be a part of those things. If thaÄôs something that our surgeon wants or feels like would benefit his patient population, wÄôre willing to do that for them and thaÄôs exciting to have an organization that leaps forward that quickly. IÄôs much more collaborative, theyÄôre very involved in their choice of equipment. We try to involve them in any major decisions so that they feel that they have a buy into this, theyÄôre a part of it. One of the physicians said to me the other day, I feel like Äôve worked with this team for years because it just got the flow down, it just works. Dr. Michael Putney is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in arthroscopic reconstructive surgery of the knee, shoulder and total joint replacement as well as sports medicine. Now let's hear what Dr. Putney has to say about is methods on practicing medicine. My methods are always first the patient comes first. I treat my patients like I or my family would want to be treated and I always prefer to be conservative and try conservative methods before going straight to surgery. I emphasize to all my staff that every patient that comes in they need to think of that as their mother or brother or sister coming in to get taken care of by us. Äôve lived in Texas all my life, I treat people like a Texan. For more information on this beautiful hospital or to check out hundreds of more informational videos, check out our website, bestdocsnetwork.com and click on that Forest Park Medical Center tab. Up next weÄôre going to check out Austin family physician, Dr. Paul John. I was experiencing extremely severe shortness of breath. I couldÄôt walk up a flight of stairs without being totally winded. Dr. John has been my primary care physician for a good number of years so I made an appointment and came in to see him which led to the in office stress test. He was complaining to me about some mild chest pain. It wasÄôt really that severe, although given his age I thought that maybe we should do some further testing on him. After explaining to him the test that I wanted to do which was a stress test, he agreed to have the test performed which we actually do in our office. During the in office stress test, there was aerodynamic bicycle riding, trying to go as fast as you can, maintain a certain level. At the same time theÄôre monitoring your lung capacity and monitoring your fatigue level. Stress tests are pretty much a standard that wÄôve used for a long time. The bicycle because people are falling off the treadmills and that was not a good thing was to develop a protocol where we could have a very exact amount of exercise and the techs are responsible for making sure that people exercise and pedal at a very exact rate so that everything is done in the same fashion on each patient. One thing I really like about Dr. John, hÄôs very honest, be it good news or bad news heÄôs very honest when he tells you what the risks are and what you need to do, what you need to do to correct whatever happens to be the problem. About three or four minutes into the study we noticed that he had ST changes which is a change in his EKG that indicates a positive test meaning that he potentially has some blockage of his arteries. I looked at the EKG and at that point I took a picture of it with my cell phone. I sent it as a text message to my cardiology colleague who at that point said we want him in the hospital right now and we sent him over. Dr. John got on the phone that afternoon, made me an appointment with a cardiologist which I was able to see that afternoon and things went very smoothly after that. I was taken very good care of. TherÄôs no doubt in my mind Dr. John saved my life. Here at Forest Park Medical Center not only do we look locally but we look nationwide for top managers, directors and employees. And not only did we focus on their experience but we focused on customer service because customer service is our number one thing that we look for because we want to treat our patients exceptionally. What impressed me the most about the facility is that they pick the top of the staff that they can find and most of the staff have years and years of experience so when people come here theÄôre getting the best care possible. We were very fortunate. We had a large candidate pool, a lot of applicants that were very interested in working at Forest Park. So we were able to hire the best and the brightest and it was an exciting opportunity to work through all the interviews and really look to focus on not only finding that clinical excellence and knowledge and experience coming from our staff but also those that were really focused on customer service. Those that really wanted to provide patients with outstanding care. Those that really wanted to treat patients as if they were their own family members. We are a surgical specialty hospital and our length of stay is less than two days so we are able to allow our patients to be discharged at less than two days due to our excellent nursing ratios that we have which is 4 to 1 and thatÄôs an outstanding patient ratio that we have so we can really focus on the patient and their needs. Getting what we need for the patients is the most important thing and seeing to the needs of the patients as quick as we can is the most important thing that all of the staff has in common here. We want the recovery to be excellent. We want them to be well, we want them to feel needed, we want them to feel like they get the care that theÄôre paying for. I really enjoy the atmosphere at Forest Park. IÄôs very positive and IÄôm glad that IÄôm with the Forest Park family. IÄôs a great place to work and a great place to be. Did you know that Forest Park Medical Centers are designed and constructed to meet or exceed the standards of the U.S. Green Building Councils Leadership and Energy Environmental Design (LEED) program? The purpose of LEED is to reduce energy and resource consumption, minimize environmental impact and provide healthier and more connected buildings. Throughout the building and grounds you will see signs which highlight Forest ParÄôs sustainable efforts. Well, iÄôs a culture of caring and it comes down to the people that occupy the buildings and use the technology, the wonderful processes that weÄôve developed for them, but people really make the difference. For Forest Park we look for people that have got great experience and great skills but weÄôre also looking for people that are passionate about what they do that are compassionate empathetic people, great nurses, great respiratory therapists, great imaging staff. The greeter at our front desk is warm and bright and welcoming and she smiles. And even if you come in and youÄôre uncertain and scared and shÄôs the first face that you see, you will immediately melt your fears away because of the engagement. Just the smile and the compassion that comes through and itÄôs not something you can put on. IÄôs an empathy that people have or donÄôt have, iÄôs one of the traits that we seek. IÄôs a passion about what they do, iÄôs an excellence, itÄôs an attitude and iÄôs every single person. And so we look for that, we search for it. IÄôs not always easy to find, but when yoÄôve got it, every single person that goes into the patientÄôs room from our environmental services folks, all the way through the clinical team, everybody knows what their job is, they know they're an integral part of the team. And our environmental folks are the front line of our infection control, their role is incredibly important. It makes a difference in our care in how they carry themselves throughout their day and present themselves to our patients is very important and iÄôs all about being compassionate, smiling, being optimistic. In Southlake we built our team of 150 people over a relatively short period of time. When youÄôre opening a new facility, the wonderful opportunity you have is you get to build that culture. ItÄôs not there yet, therÄôs not a culture there. TherÄôs a culture for the organization but when you build that hospital and every single person that you hire, you have to be very careful and selective that youÄôre hiring people that are of the culture of caring, compassion, excellence that you really want to continue for Forest Park. So wÄôre creating more than just excellent healthcare outcomes, weÄôre creating memories which is a strange way to think about what we do. WeÄôre healing people and those are tasks and iÄôs clinical but weÄôre also creating potentially memories, experiences for people that theÄôre going to talk about, remember. We want to create an experience that is memorable in every possible good way and that has to do again with our people. How were they treated beyond the clinical care and experience, the outcome is excellent but the thing that is memorable to people is not necessarily how I was put to sleep in anesthesia, iÄôs going to be about how was I treated as a person. Did I walk away feeling like the patient that told me she feels like a princess and this place is like a spa. They had an experience and thatÄôs what they will remember. IÄôs the Disney of healthcare. WÄôre here today at Forest Park Medical Center in Dallas Texas and they are the host site for the Texas Association for Bariatric Surgeries Patient Conference for 2013. Today there is a fabulous patient centric meeting. ItÄôs filled with psychologists, with dieticians, exercise physiologists, behavior modification people. But the whole goal is to take folks that have had bariatric surgery or are thinking about bariatric surgery and helping them to get fit, helping them to change the way they think, helping them to be successful with the whole bariatric weight loss program. Today is very special because iÄôs all about patients. And a lot of times at professional meetings itÄôs doctors talking to each other, presenting their data. This is all for the patients to help them have a better outcome, understand whaÄôs going on in their bodies. My job will be to help them understand some of the psychological aspects of weight loss surgery and hopefully give them some coping strategies to maximize their success. TABS is a great organization for speaking for the patient. So iÄôs not only about surgery, iÄôs about support, itÄôs about exercise, iÄôs about prevention. IÄôs very important when you take care of patients whether they have diabetes or high blood pressure or they have a craniofacial deformity or even just having gall bladder disease, we need to provide preoperative care, intraoperative and immediate postoperative care but it doesnÄôt end at the point when the patient leaves the hospital. Programs like this help patients see ways to overcome stress, ways to change their behavior so that they can be successful with changing their eating habits. All of the surgeons here include a multidisciplinary approach. TheÄôre not just giving the surgery and sending the patient on their way. ThereÄôs nutrition, therÄôs the psychological component, thereÄôs support groups and yeah this is a world class place. You know Forest Park was founded to give physicians an opportunity to take center stage in the care of their patients. IÄôs not an institutionally driven care model, itÄôs a physician driven care model. You can easily request an appointment with any of the doctors that you see on todayÄôs show just by typing bestdocsnetwork.com and clicking on that Forest Park Medical Center tab. Up next wÄôre going to introduce internal medicine, Dr. Terry Chambless. Causes of high blood pressure can be environmental and can be genetic or both. One of the things of course that we did at the very first meeting that I had with Dr. Chambless was go through very detailed family history to see what their medical concerns were and to see if there were any trends that presented because of your family history. If thereÄôs a strong family history of high blood pressure in one parent or another or both, itÄôs sort of like trying to change your eye color, itÄôs not going to happen. And going on a medication, especially the ones that we have now, safe and effective, itÄôs just like taking a vitamin every morning. The hard part that I face is convincing patients that that is the right thing for them to do. In this case Dr. Chambless started out with what he considered a very low dose of medicine and that has been successful for me. I will say that Dr. Chambless, although not afraid to use pharmaceuticals to help you with your health issues is very cautious to make sure that he starts out with a very low dose so that heÄôs not overmedicating you or hÄôs not leaving himself any wiggle room should the blood pressure in this case go up and you need to increase the strength or dosage of the drugs being taken. He came to me about two years ago. His blood pressure was way too high, now hÄôs got an excellent blood pressure on a very well tolerated medication and there are some other things with Chris thatÄôs helped him lose his weight. HeÄôs feeling good and Äôm just really proud of him. HÄôs going to be around for a long time. Today I just feel really great about where IÄôm going and my general condition and I attribute that all to the doctorÄôs care and commitment to me. Quite honestly, a part of me that kicks myself for not being here 15 years sooner because I think my health would have been much better, my weight clearly would be further off than iÄôs been so far and I would just generally have a better quality of life which has been whatÄôs happened to me in the last two years since IÄôve been with Dr. Chambless. I think Forest Park in Austin is going to be a great, great thing. IÄôs a great excellent medical facility. The doctors involved with it are going to be great. IÄôs going to be a very great opportunity for the patient to have another choice in something that is going to be geared to not only giving them excellent healthcare but a great medical experience. IÄôm excited about Forest Park, I think itÄôs going to be a terrific asset to the Austin community in that iÄôs going to be a new hospital of a new type. IÄôs going to be doctor managed and driven and will be focused on taking care of patients and focused on the best outcomes and the best patient care. Medicine is about the doctor and the patient. We want to have perfectly open communication with patients and you know I think thaÄôs what Forest Park is all about. IÄôs giving the patient a really excellent experience and excellent healthcare all at the same time. IÄôm really excited about joining the Forest Park family. I think that medical care should be between doctors and their patients and Äôm really excited about being involved with a hospital thaÄôs run by doctors. A lot of times physicians have ideas about what could be done differently to make it a better experience for the patient or a less costly experience for the hospital but oftentimes weÄôre not able to make those changes and so I wanted to be able to make those changes since this would be a physician controlled hospital. IÄôve had the pleasure of actually doing some surgeries in the Dallas Forest Park. IÄôs a beautiful facility and itÄôs extremely well run. Again IÄôm a surgeon so what happens in the OÄôs is important to me and the OÄôs were very well staffed, very well stocked and ran like a clock, it was perfect. The other thing about Forest Park is that based on it being physician controlled and based on its size it is better able to adapt and evolve as things change because in medicine things are always changing and if you donÄôt adapt and evolve quickly then what yoÄôre doing tends to not be the standard of care anymore and so thatÄôs another reason I was so interested in Forest Park. IÄôm excited about Forest Park. IÄôs my honor to be associated with them. I have been here in Round Rock for a long time and we have missed a hospital like this. I think the whole concept of Forest Park is centered around improved patient care and actually saving them money by reducing the administrative cost that exists at other hospitals. This is a good thing for Austin and iÄôs a good thing for the doctors and iÄôs a good thing for medical care. From staff to surgeons, from technology to technique, Forest Park Medical Center Austin is your destination to better health. Thanks for tuning in to another edition of one of the top medical centers in all of Texas, where Forest Park Medical Center is your destination to better health. For more information on Forest Park Medical Center or any of their doctors, logon to our website, bestdocsnetwork.com and click on that Forest Park Medical Center tab. Got any questions or comments? Email us at info@bestdocsnetwork.com. So long everybody and we will see you next week.