The Roanoker - January/February 2019 - VL42

VALLEY LIFE

Health Care
When you need emergency care in Southwest Virginia, have
confidence knowing you're receiving the best care, as quickly as
possible, at LewisGale Regional Health System's network of four
hospital Emergency Rooms and our newest ER - the Cave Spring
Emergency Room. This nearly 10,000 square-foot standalone
ER is staffed with board-certified emergency room physicians
and nurses 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, providing the same
services found in an emergency room housed within the walls
of a hospital. Together, these five Emergency Rooms provide
unparalleled emergency care and the region's shortest wait times
before being seen by an ER physician. Choosing the right ER is
important because it is figuratively a hospital's front door, with

effective treatment sooner with antibiotics designed specifically
to target specific organisms. LewisGale is presently one of the
only health care providers in Southwest Virginia using the new
VITEK Mass Spectrometry (MS) unit that can improve patient
results, reduce the reliance on broad-spectrum antibiotics,
lower costs and shorten patient hospital stays. The new unit can
analyze a culture and identify the disease-causing organism(s)
in as little as 60 seconds, compared to waiting 24 hours or
longer for results when compared to using traditional diagnostic
procedures.
Technology also plays an important role in helping deliver
the best surgical outcomes possible. For instance, robot-assisted

LewisGale is presently one of the only health care providers in
Southwest Virginia using the new VITEK Mass Spectrometry (MS)
unit that can improve patient results, reduce the reliance on broadspectrum antibiotics, lower costs and shorten patient hospital stays.
the majority of hospitalizations resulting from a visit there first.
In addition to fast ER wait times, the entire LewisGale
Regional Health System and each of our four hospitals are
focused on quality of patient care. To this end we measure
outcomes and processes because evidence-based medicine
is proven to provide the best health outcomes possible. That
attention to detail and quality extends to each of our numerous
service lines as well. For instance, looking at quality indicators
in Orthopedics, LewisGale Medical Center is a Top 100 Hospital
for Spine Surgery as measured by HealthGrades and in the top 10
percent of hospitals nationwide for Orthopedic Surgery. We're
also the only four-star hospital in the Roanoke Valley as rated
by the Centers for Medicare Services.

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY THAT IS IMPROVING
OUTCOMES AND SAVING LIVES
LewisGale's quality outcomes, in part, are a direct result of
our focus on early recognition and treatment of sepsis - the
body's extreme response to an infection and a life-threatening
medical emergency. As an HCA hospital, LewisGale Medical
Center is using new SPOT technology (Sepsis Prediction and
Optimization of Therapy) - a software program created by HCA's
data scientists to identify the first signs of sepsis using artificial
intelligence. The technology has resulted in early detection of
at least one-third more cases of sepsis that may not previously
have come to caregivers' attention until it was too late. When
compared to local, state and national averages, a significantly
higher percentage of LewisGale patients received appropriate
care for severe sepsis and septic shock, according to a survey by
the Center for Medicare Services (CMS), and our overall sepsis
mortality rate is less than half the national average.
Another way technology benefits patients is through
LewisGale's new laboratory equipment that identifies diseasecausing germs faster than ever, enabling physicians to begin

42 2019 VALLEY LIFE

surgery is considered by many to be the most effective and least
invasive surgical technology available today, offering a number
of benefits over traditional surgery including providing surgeons
more precise control over the surgical instruments. LewisGale
Medical Center utilizes the da Vinci® Surgical System across a
spectrum of minimally invasive surgical procedures in the areas
of gynecology, urology, thoracic and general surgery. LewisGale
Medical Center is also the first hospital west of Richmond with
the new Mazor X™ Robotic Guidance Platform for spine surgery.
Technology is also helping protect LewisGale's youngest
patients - newborns - and provide parents with added security
and peace of mind. CertaScan is a new, high-tech tool used
to identify newborns using their footprints, as footprints from
birth are a recognized and viable way of uniquely identifying
a baby. Nurses scan the feet of every newborn using this
modern-scanning technology and patent-pending system. Those
footprints become a permanent part of the baby's medical
record and lasting memento for parents, in addition to providing
an added layer of security while the baby is still in the hospital
and when the baby goes home.

NEW LEADERSHIP AND PHYSICIAN TRAINING
HELP POSITION THE HEALTH SYSTEM FOR
CONTINUED FUTURE SUCCESS
To help train tomorrow's exceptional physicians, LewisGale
recently began a Graduate Medical Education Program (GME)
in internal medicine and psychiatry, and plans to expand the
program with opportunities in Emergency Medicine, Family
Medicine, Transitional Year and medicine subspecialties by 2020
when we anticipate having more than 140 residents.
When it comes to choosing and evaluating a health care
provider, know that LewisGale offers a full spectrum of specialty
services that you would expect from a multi-facility, regional
health system.
The Roanoker - January/February 2019

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