The Perioperative Services Department at St. Luke’s Hospital has programs tailored to the particular needs of patients who live in and around Polk County.
The Surgery Experience
Our team of Perioperative specialists provides the know-how
for smoothly handling surgical procedures, and also goes above and beyond
in catering to our patients in terms of convenience. For example, patients
scheduled for surgery only need to meet with an Outpatient Surgery Nurse
for a preoperative interview/assessment and preliminary surgical workup
prior to the day of the procedure. When the patient arrives on the morning
of surgery, everything is set and it’s smooth sailing for quickly
tending to surgery, recovery and heading for home.
For patients who require regular administration of intravenous medications or blood products, our Outpatient Surgery Nurses stand ready with these and other therapeutic services as well as providing a variety of diagnostic services.
Specialists
St. Luke’s Hospital provides office space to a
number of specialists whose practices are located in surrounding counties.
(We call this our “flex”, for flexible office). The flex
office is located on the St. Luke’s campus, which means that patients
who want to see a specialist can make an appointment to be seen here
in Columbus, rather than traveling to the specialist’s home office.
Staffing for the flex office is provided by nurses from St. Luke’s,
so patients often see the same faces at the hospital that they have
seen at the flex office.
General Surgery
The word “general” tells it like it is;
St. Luke’s General Surgery Department handles a large and diverse
variety of procedures, big and small, simple and complex. We may go
directly from excising a minor skin lesion to performing major abdominal
surgery. Special areas call for referral to one of our specialists,
but competent general surgeons perform the vast majority of our surgery
cases.
Our state of the art equipment coupled with the expertise of our surgical
staff have made it possible for us to offer advanced laparoscopic procedures.
Small incisions are made into the abdomen and small scopes allow our
surgeons direct visibility into the abdominal cavity. Instruments are
inserted through these ports making it possible to complete complex
surgical maneuvers through smaller surgical incisions. Two examples
of such procedures are laparoscopic gall bladder removal and laparoscopic
Nissen fundoplication, a new effective correction of gastric reflux.
Patients having laparoscopic procedures experience a shorter recovery
time and reduced hospital stay.
One area of surgery handled by our general surgeons that many find fascinating involves the use of an endoscope, a device that permits the doctor to actually look inside the body. Endoscopes are used to examine the upper parts of the G.I. tract including the esophagus and stomach(EGD) and also to examine the lower areas of the G.I. tract such as the large intestine (colonoscopy). Both of these endoscopic procedures described have historically been approached with dread due to the old techniques and instruments once used. Here at St. Luke’s we have the latest endoscopes (smaller, brighter, more easily maneuvered) through which a much sharper image is formed. What’s more a large percentage of necessary procedures can be done using tiny instruments inserted into the “scopes”. To top it all off, the surgeon can snap very good pictures of the whole business. Probably of most interest to prospective EGD and colonoscopy patients is that our nurse anesthetists not only continuously monitor these procedures but also provide sedation to keep them comfortable throughout the procedures and then allow them to awaken within minutes after completion of the examinations.
Urological Services
Yet another variety of endoscopes is used in St. Luke’s
for urological exams is a cystoscope. Using this special scope, a urologist
can do a direct examination of the bladder. Other uses for scopes in
urology include removal of kidney stones and performing surgery on the
prostate gland.
A rather new and invaluable urology program is called Urodynamics. Using a sophistocated-computerized set-up, our urologists use Urodynamics to determine whether urinary incontinence can be improved or corrected by surgery.
Orthopedic Services
Our orthopedists here at St. Luke’s Hospital perform
a wide range of bone and joint procedures. Joint replacement surgery
such as total hip replacement often allows patients to walk again without
pain.
Arthroscopic surgical procedures allow our orthopedists to directly
view problems in injured and painful joints for diagnoses. The scope
is inserted through a small incision and, using its built-in light and
a variety of small instruments inserted through the scope, the surgeon
is often able to correct the diagnosed problem immediately. Needless
to say, when arthroscopic surgery is the technique of choice for any
given case, the reduction in trauma as compared to “open”
surgery is dramatic.
Our orthopedics
services also include specialty treatment of performance related injuries
such as carpal tunnel syndrome and traumatic hand injuries.
Click HERE for Anterior
Hip Replacement Surgery
Anesthesia Services
Everybody knows anesthesia providers as the good guys
who put us to sleep so we won’t feel anything during surgery.
That’s a gross simplification of a complex job that routinely
puts patients into a state in which these anesthesia providers are responsible
for maintaining normal blood pressure, proper respiration, good cardiac
readings and a host of other monitors while the patient is kept at a
safe level of anesthesia.
Not everyone is aware that our anesthesia providers also team with our doctors to relieve severe, sometimes intractable pain. For example, our anesthetists perform a protocol for the diagnosis and relief of severe back pain. This involves three scheduled injections of steroids into the epidural space (an area close to the spinal cord). Even if the pain is not eliminated, valuable diagnostic information is obtained to help the physician decide on a course of additional treatment.
Patients at St. Luke’s who are scheduled to have major abdominal surgery, receive special help from our Anesthesia Department. To combat post-operative pain, before surgery the anesthetist places a small catheter into the epidural space (like when you have a “spinal”). The catheter is used for administration of pain control medications where it does the most good. Result: the patient experiences much less pain…in many cases “pain free”…during a period of 48 hours after surgery!
Post Anesthesia Care
Unit
At St Luke’s Hospital, our OR nurses are all cross-trained
to work in our Post Anesthesia Care Unit. Working under the direct supervision
of our anesthesia providers, they are expert at making post op patients
comfortable as well as tending to all immediate physician orders. Many
patients are pleasantly surprised to find that their OR nurse is continuing
to care for them in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit. At a time like that,
it’s nice to see friendly, familiar faces nearby.
Staff
Perioperative Services staffers provide round-the-clock
emergency surgical care every day of the year. Our ability to function
as a team is exemplary and unique. Devotion to the team spirit is evidenced
by an extremely low turnover rate in the department. Every nurse in
the department is certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support and every
surgical technologist is certified in Basic Life Support. All Certified
Nurse Anesthetists have earned Master’s Degrees.
