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Specialists expand care options at Lakeside Hospital
While offering the community access to care from doctors in specialized fields for many years, Lakeside Memorial Hospital continues to add to their specialty staff. By forging liaisons with physicians who offer clinic hours and perform surgeries at the Brockport hospital, administrators are striving to provide a broader range of services on the campus. According to Lakeside’s Chief of Surgery, Dr. Hovaness H. Maronian, the availability of specialists helps the hospital fulfill its mission of tending to the needs of the community. “Our surgical services, equipment, operating nurse staff, anesthesiologists -- all are top notch,” he said. “We will encourage more surgical specialists to come to Lakeside so that the community does not have to look outside of the area for care.” In turn, the surgical chief said, the community needs to support the services offered to them by asking to be referred to Lakeside staff. Recent expansion of professional services in the field of orthopaedic treatment and care now makes experts in pediatric orthopaedics and spine care and support programs in physical therapy and rehabilitation locally available. These add to the services provided by practitioners in hand, elbow, wrist, and upper extremity orthopaedic surgeries. Expanding the professional staff These professionals and other orthopaedic experts use a suite of offices located at the front corner of the hospital (facing West Avenue) in a wing which was part of the original hospital. They have various clinic (office) and operating days. Dr. Thomas E. Hansen has seen patients at Lakeside one day per week since the summer of 2003. He performs in patient and out patient surgeries for hand, upper extremity and shoulder problems at the local hospital on a second day. His patients come largely from referrals made by primary care physicians and by the hospital’s emergency department. Hansen said he especially enjoys the treatment of the hand due to its comprehensive anatomy of bone, tissue, muscle and skin. He’s a 1997 graduate of SUNY Buffalo and did his residency at Louisiana State University. He completed a fellowship in hand surgery at UR’s Strong Hospital in 2003 and is currently an assistant professor of orthopaedics at UR. Looking ahead, Dr. Hansen said he may increase his clinic time, noting that the feedback he receives is positive. Many patients tell him they don’t want to travel to a Rochester care facility and appreciate the convenience of the Brockport hospital’s location, ease of access and free parking. As is the case with many complex health situations, orthopaedic patients often need to return frequently to their surgeon for progress monitoring and radiological assessments. Patients need only travel short distances within the Lakeside facility to go from doctor’s office to radiology to physical therapy, another plus, according to some physicians, who also note that having services and departments close at hand helps in oversight of a patient’s care. Dr. K. Anjali Singh sees patients younger than 18 years of age who have skeletal developmental problems, such as a club foot, and bone injuries. She performs some surgeries at Lakeside and offers follow-up care there, according to her husband, Dr. Hansen. She is at Lakeside one day per week. Additionally, Dr. Michael E. Leit and Physician’s Assistant Tom Ladley offer general orthopaedic care with an emphasis in sports medicine and hand, elbow and shoulder treatment. Leit, also affiliated with UR’s Strong Memorial Hospital, serves as Lakeside’s chief of orthopaedics. A graduate of Yale University, Leit was introduced to the Lakeside complex while completing a fellowship at UR in 2003. He brings extensive experience as a military surgeon and as a physician in private practice to Lakeside, where he currently sees patients three days a week, schedules surgeries two days a week and is one of the on call doctors for orthopaedic-related emergencies. Leit is a professor of orthopaedics at the University of Rochester and consultant on orthopaedic instruments and implants. He’s published more than 30 articles and book chapters on subjects in his field of study. Leit said the orthopaedic unit is able to treat most patients at Lakeside without sending them on to a larger hospital. “We can’t do everything here, but the things we do we want to do as well or better than anywhere else,” Leit said. Leit invited PA Tom Ladley to the Lakeside practice early in 2005 to help handle the growing patient volume. The two men had worked together in military settings, Leit said. Ladley was among the first medical providers deployed to support military operations in Afghanistan in 2001 and has served two tours in Iraq, according to Leit. Ladley also served in the infantry during the Viet Nam War, is still on active military status and is accomplished in the medical field, Leit said. As a physician’s assistant, he sees patients, confers with the doctor on diagnoses and provides treatment care. “The orthopaedic surgeons at Lakeside are committed to providing world class care,” Leit said. He acknowledges that the small hospital demonstrates a strong team effort, a team comprised of the hospital administration, nursing staff, doctors, assistants and other service providers working to fulfill the mission of quality care for Lakeside patients. Local access to UR Spine Center professionals The center is comprised of nationally recognized experts in complex spine surgery, minimally invasive spine surgery, interventional spine procedures, spinal rehabilitation and electrodiagnostic medicine, according to website information (www.uofrspine.com). One of the surgeons participating in the center is Glenn R. Rechtine, II, MD, whose special interests include cervical and lumbar degenerative disease, herniated discs, myelopathy and spine trauma. Rechtine said at Lakeside, as at his primary offices, spine conditions are considered on an individual basis. The goal is treat the patient using the least invasive methods available to achieve success. In a high percentage of cases, a combination of therapies can alleviate back pain with non-operative treatment. As an example, 80 percent of the cases involving a herniated disc can be successfully treated without surgery, he said. Though Dr. Rechtine has been seeing patients at Lakeside one day a week, every other week, for only a few months, he’s noted an increase in requests for appointments in Brockport. Spine surgery, if needed, is done at Strong, he said, but diagnostics, out patient, follow-up care and physical therapy can all be scheduled at Lakeside. At the Spine Center, a large team of professionals test, diagnose and treat using in-house equipment and services. Part of the growth process in this Lakeside venture, Rechtine said, is defining and refining the processes and procedures with various departments at the hospital. Rechtine said he is happy with the physical therapy services and with the quality of the diagnostic studies generated at Lakeside. Rechtine is well known in the field of spinal surgery. He is a member of the board of directors of the American Spinal Injury Association and is on the executive committee of the Cervical Spine Research Society. A graduate of the University of South Florida Medical School, he has also served as director of spine surgery, director of orthopaedic research, professor in the Department of Orthopaedics and professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Florida. He is a professor of orthopaedics at the University of Rochester. Multidisciplinary approach He’s a physiatrist, a physician who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation, and offers non-operative care of conditions such as neck and back pain and symptoms such as non-specific leg pain which can be caused by a pinched spinal nerve. Using electrodiagnostic (EMG) equipment for diagnosing, he can prescribe a treatment process which will help patients manage acute and chronic spine pain. Options include the use of Botox, medications and therapy (according to information found at www.-uofrspine.com). Orsini completed his residency at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C. and trained in diagnostics at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Rechtine and Orsini are joined by Family Nurse Practitioner Phyllis Ruetz, MS, RN, FNP in providing spine care treatment at Lakeside. Contacts Note: Health insurance providers may require referrals from primary care doctors for consultations with specialists. |