A Message from the Chairman

Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center is proud to provide a full-range of high-quality surgical programs offering safe and effective treatment for patients who require the expert hands of a surgical specialist.

Never has there been a more exciting time to be a surgeon at Saint Francis. And never have our patients had access to a higher level of care and caring than they do now with the opening of our new John T. O’Connell Tower.

Completed in 2011, our new Arthur and Mariko Byrne Surgery Pavilion on the third floor of the Tower brings to 32 the number of operating rooms available for all types of surgery, from ambulatory procedures to joint replacement, and from complex vascular care to robotic surgery.

Combined, our surgeons care for almost 20,000 patients in our operating rooms each year, and we want every patient to return home feeling as though his or her surgery was the most important one – because to us, every surgery is the most important one.

As chairman of the Department of Surgery, I am gratified to work in a hospital that combines the compassionate care of a community hospital with the dynamic educational environment of an academic medical center. Our joint mission of providing the best care for patients, while training professionals of the future inspires us to develop and test best practices that serve as models for today and paradigms for tomorrow.

Access to the latest technology is crucial to advancing this ambitious mission. All of our new operating rooms are fully integrated with digital imaging technology, allowing us to view MRIs, CT scans, angiograms and x-rays in real time, while we are operating. This video and data transmission capability also allows us to beam live video for consultation with other physicians and for teaching others our craft.

Saint Francis also is home to two state-of-the-art daVinci SI Robotic Surgery Systems. The daVinci surgical system makes it possible to perform complex surgeries through multiple small incisions, resulting in better outcomes, less pain and shorter recovery times for our patients.

As a vascular surgeon, I am especially excited about our new hybrid operating room. Equipped with sophisticated imaging capacity, this room allows surgeons to repair veins and arteries, guided by real-time, angiographic images. This is a great advance. Previously, many of these procedures were performed in an interventional radiology suite, which allowed for imaging, but lacked the features of an operating room.

Patient Safety

Finally, patient safety is paramount in our surgical programs. Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center has voluntarily participated in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) since 2007. Considered the "gold standard" by The Joint Commission for outcomes measurement and reporting, our surgery department has used this evidenced-based program to provide excellent quality surgical care. In addition, we are proud that The Joint Commission recently recognized our universal protocol policy, which includes timeouts prior to every surgery, appropriate marking of surgical sites, and the use of detailed scripted checklists, as a best practice.

On behalf of the 14 clinical service lines that make up the surgical program, I invite patients and professionals to get to know us better. I am confident you will agree that in everything we do, surgeons at Saint Francis deliver on the hospital's promise to provide BestCare for a Lifetime.

Sincerely,

Steven T. Ruby, M.D., FACS
Chairman, Department of Surgery