Robotic Surgery Powerhouse
Ohio State physicians were the first in the country to perform surgery with the da Vinci® robot, and they have been developing and teaching new techniques for robotic surgery across numerous specialties for years. Now performing nearly 1,200 robotic surgeries per year, and more than 70 distinct procedures, Ohio State’s 25 robotically skilled surgeons have created the Ohio State Center for Advanced Robotic Surgery.
Supported by experienced nurses and technicians and by multidisciplinary teams in medical oncology, heart, urologic and gynecologic robotic surgery, Center surgeons are unmatched in offering patients and trainees the latest techniques in this state-of-the-art technology.
“The more experienced the surgeon, the better the outcome,” says Ronney Abaza, MD, who co-directs the Center with Jeffrey Fowler, MD, who holds the John G. Boutselis, MD, chair in Gynecology. “We’re lucky at Ohio State to have so many surgeons in multiple fields who have mastered these techniques.” Read more at: http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/go/advancedrobotics.
Ohio State Hospitals Leap to the Top
The Leapfrog Group, a national organization created by some of the nation’s largest employers to improve healthcare quality, named two Ohio State hospitals to its 2009 list of 45 U.S. hospitals that deliver the best quality care while attaining the highest levels of efficiency.
Ohio State’s University Hospital and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute are among the safest and most effective hospitals in the country, according to Leapfrog’s 2009 review. No other Ohio hospitals were on the list.
More than 1,200 hospitals across the country are involved in the Leapfrog project and are voluntarily evaluated on quality and safety criteria.
Members of the Leapfrog Group, including companies such as General Motors, FedEx and Boeing, represent more than 34 million Americans and more than $62 billion in healthcare expenditures each year.
Ride for Research
The inaugural Pelotonia cycling tour in August 2009 was a grand success. More than 2,200 riders and their sponsors raised $4.5 million for cancer research at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.
Pelotonia riders from 31 states and Canada, including seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, were welcomed by cheers and handmade signs along the route from Columbus through the rolling hills of southern Ohio and back.
The 2010 Pelotonia tour is scheduled for August 20-22. To register or learn more, visit http://pelotonia.org.
Sight & Sound Center
Ohio State’s Medical Center has greatly expanded outpatient clinical and surgical services with the opening of its five-story Eye and Ear Institute at 915 Olentangy River Road, south of the Medical Center’s main campus. The largest occupant of the building is Ohio State’s Department of Ophthalmology and its noted Havener Eye Institute.
Other specialties and services that have relocated from the main Medical Center campus to the new building include Otolaryngology, Plastic Surgery, the Center for Women’s Health and the Hand Center.
The building also includes a state-of-the-art outpatient surgery center. Read more at: http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/go/eyeandear.
Beacon Nurses
The fourth floor critical care unit in Ohio State’s Ross Heart Hospital received a 2009 Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. The honor is awarded to units that meet the highest standards in categories such as patient outcomes, training, ethics and environment.
Gold Stroke
Ohio State’s stroke program was recently awarded a Gold Seal of Approval from the Joint Commission for Primary Stroke Centers. The certification is awarded to stroke programs that best follow national standards and guidelines set by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. These standards have been shown to significantly improve outcomes for stroke patients.
Certifiably Strong
Two new programs in Ohio State’s School of Allied Medical Professions were recently certified by national credentialing organizations. The Neurological Physical Therapy Residency program is the first in Ohio and one of only six in the country. Also new is the Radiologist Assistant MS program, one of only three in the United States.
Happy Staff
For the third year in a row, The Ohio State University Medical Center has been named one of central Ohio’s Best Places to Work by Columbus’s Business First newspaper. The Medical Center was selected from 140 local companies based on employee responses to questions in 10 categories known to drive employee engagement and satisfaction, including team effectiveness and trust inco-workers and senior leaders.
Care in the ‘Burbs
The Medical Center opened its first suburban CarePoint ambulatory care center in Gahanna in December. The Center features primary care, imaging, cardiovascular medicine, physical therapy, neurology, orthopaedics, obstetrics and gynecology, podiatry and sports medicine specialists and services. Construction also began in December on a CarePoint location in Lewis Center north of Columbus, which will provide many of the same services. Read more at:
http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/go/carepointgahanna.
Tweet Success
The number of people following Ohio State’s Medical Center on the social networking and microblogging Web site Twitter places it among the Top 20 most-followed hospitals in the nation, according to rankings by Ed Bennett of the University of Maryland. The Medical Center uses Twitter to offer help and directions to patients and visitors, and to send messages about health improvement and research findings from Medical Center experts.
Surgeon Shortage
Ohio State Department of Surgery Chair Christopher Ellison, MD, and colleagues Thomas Williams, MD, and Bhagwan Satiani, MD, predict a shortage of nearly 30,000 surgeons in the U.S. in seven specialties by 2030. In their new book The Coming Shortage of Surgeons, they attribute the shortage to a growing elderly population and not enough surgeons in training to keep up with the surgical demand that will be created.
Universal Design
A 3,500-square-foot home now under construction in suburban Columbus is being built as a universal design living laboratory, showcasing the latest features in accessible homes. The home will be finished by June and will be open for public tours for one month thereafter, with proceeds benefiting the Rosemarie Rossetti Spinal Cord Research Fund at Ohio State. Future activities at the house include gatherings for architects, builders and advocacy groups interested in universal design.
Top Heart
Ohio State’s Medical Center has been named one of the Top 100 U.S. hospitals for inpatient cardiovascular care by Thomson Reuters, which analyzed patient outcomes for heart failure, heart attacks, bypass surgery and angioplasties. Top-100 hospitals had significantly lower patient mortality rates, fewer post-operative complications, shorter hospital stays and lower costs.
Another First
Seventeen faculty and staff at Ohio State were named 2009 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest number from any single university in the country last year. AAAS is the world’s largest scientific organization and publisher of the journal Science. For the past eight years, Ohio State has been either first or second among institutions having the most AAAS Fellows named per year.
Job Generator
The Ohio State University Medical Center has added more jobs since 2001 than any other central Ohio employer, according to a December 2009 analysis from the Columbus Chamber of Commerce. Medical Center employment is up to nearly 16,000, making it the area’s third largest employer behind the State of Ohio and JP Morgan Chase.
VIP Sees EMR
Ohio State’s leadership in the use of electronic medical records (EMR) prompted a visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who viewed examples of health information technology during a tour of Ohio State’s Martha Morehouse Medical Plaza. In addition, the Medical Center’s OSUMyChart allows patients to access their own medical record information and directly communicate with their medical providers.