It’s nice to know that you’re being cared for people who really do care about you.
By: Dr. H. Stephen Farmer
I’ve been an ENT specialist and surgeon for 37 plus years in private practice and working at the University Medical Center of Princeton. As a surgeon, I’ve felt that it was a real privilege to be on that hospital’s staff. Then I needed an operation for myself and I had to shift the focus of my thinking. Where would I go to have my own hip replacement operation?
I had a long time to think about where I would have my hip replacement done. Many of my well-meaning colleagues and friends were quick to recommend that I go to New York City or Philadelphia. At first, I did not even consider my own hospital as an option there was no particular reason for this, just the habit of thinking that bigger must mean better. As I began to assess my needs, not just for the operation itself, but for my rehabilitation as well, I came more and more to feel that the closer to home, the better.
That was when I started to really do my homework. First, as I always do, I consulted with several of my anesthesiologist friends. They have the best close-encounter opportunity to know which surgeons have the operative skills and excel at overall patient management. I also asked operating room nurses, recovery room nurses and anyone who was likely to have first-hand knowledge of the surgeons’ artistry.
More research showed me that my own UMCP’s track record is stellar: It has been ranked among the Top Ten in New Jersey for Overall Orthopedics; the Top Ten in New Jersey for Joint Replacement Surgery, and the best in the Trenton area for Overall Orthopedics and Joint Replacement Surgery. I was sold! I scheduled my operation and tried to be a good patient. The big day arrived, I checked in, and before I knew it, I awoke with a new hip.
To help other patients like me realize what they have right here at home, I’ve compiled my own Top Ten list:
1. UMCP surgeons are all fully trained, board certified, and highly experienced.
2. UMCP surgeons live and work close to the hospital, so they are always available and responsive for patients both admitted and discharged.
3. UMCP’s anesthesia staff operates like a well-oiled machine. Everyone knows each other and works well together.
4. I already knew that UMCP’s operating room had been fully updated to meet all the requirements of modern joint replacement surgery, as were the staffs in the operating room, recovery room and on the nursing floors, where everyone deals with the patients on a personal rather than an institutional level.
5. Most patients who need joint replacements also have co-existing medical conditions. I can’t overstate how important it was for me to have my personal physician close at hand and able to maintain control over my nonsurgical problems. His access to previous lab results, X-rays and old records meant that my hospitalization was just a continuum of uninterrupted care rather than an event isolated from a past and future medical history. You just can’t match that in a "foreign" metropolitan hospital where no one knows your name.
6. UMCP is a community hospital. It is run by the community for the community. It’s nice to know that you’re being cared for people who really do care about you.
7. As far as the food is concerned, the standard hospital fare is quite good and they offer all sorts of opportunities to order things that aren’t on the day’s menu.
8. Choosing Merwick Rehab Hospital & Nursing Care facility was a "no-brainer" for me. Because of its location just around the corner from the hospital, my personal physicians were always close by and accessible and my family and friends did not have far to travel to come visit.
9. Merwick’s MD physiatrists and the rest of the Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Support staffs are top of the line. I was also glad to learn that the unit had refurbished and modernized. The therapy I received was friendly and truly great, and easy and informal contact with other patients (some of whom I even knew in the outside world) was mutually beneficial.
After six days, I was in great form and ready to go. Following my full-staff conference, I was fully prepared for the outside world and had all the information and that ingenious paraphernalia they give you to take care of yourself at home.
10. It was almost as important for me that my outpatient physical therapy facility was close to home and easy to reach. For me, that meant the hospital’s facility located right in the NY Sports Club at the Princeton Shopping Center (one of four outpatient therapy locations). I got great care there, too. Debbie, my therapist, allowed me to be flexible with my schedule, and once my sessions were over, I could go into the regular part of the gym and do my own thing.
It is now almost three months since my surgery. I went back to work full time dealing with my hectic office load and doing surgery after only four weeks. (Don’t tell my boss, but I could have been back a week earlier.) For the first time years, I can walk without a limp and with no pain. I can tie my shoes and get my socks on by myself. As I look back on the whole experience, the one single phrase that keeps popping into my mind is, "It’s a miracle."
Have you seen the Jack Nicklaus TV commercial for one of the prosthesis manufacturers? "I didn’t do it for the golf. I did it for the quality of life," he says. Me too. And it sure has been better. But I wouldn’t mind if I could get a few extra yards on my long game and knock a few strokes off my handicap.
I can hope, can’t I?