Adding Up to a Healthier Community

Published in the Fall 2012 Issue of Samaritan HealthTalk Magazine.

Health care relies on numbers – medication doses, test results, quality and satisfaction measures, budgets and more. But here are numbers you might not recognize right away: 960 months, 4,160 weeks, 29,219 days and 701,256 hours. These represent how 80 years of 24/7/365 health care delivered with respect, integrity, compassion and excellence add up.

This year, Good Samaritan Hospital celebrates 80 years of serving the Dayton area. In 1928, faced with a growing population and rapidly evolving medical technology, city leaders raised more than $1 million and partnered with the Sisters of Charity, renowned for innovative leadership and expertise in medical administration and nursing, to build and manage a new community hospital. Good Samaritan opened on May 12, 1932, and began to build a healthier community, a mission that continues today.

To Heal the Whole Person

While the Sisters of Charity no longer manage Good Samaritan’s daily operations, the hospital’s Catholic legacy remains strong as a Catholic Health Initiatives affiliated hospital. “Good Samaritan has always focused on the whole person,” says Carol Bauer, SC, vice president of mission effectiveness. “Our clinical care is enhanced by emotional and spiritual support that encourages healing – within our walls and in the community. With around-the-clock pastoral care for patients and their families, health ministries in the community and our Anam Cara (“soul friend”) volunteer program, we recognize that spiritual care is not always tied to a specific faith.”

“For 80 years, our commitment to living our faith has drawn a diverse group of patients, physicians and employees to Good Samaritan,” notes Mark Shaker, former Good Samaritan President and Chief Executive Officer and now Senior Vice President for System Integration with Premier Health (Premier), Good Samaritan’s parent organization. “Premier leaders appreciate these values and promote them throughout the system.”

To Advance Innovation

That commitment to caring for the total person – body, mind and spirit – is complemented by a vigorous pursuit of clinical excellence. Numerous recognitions and certifications – many “firsts” in the state or region – testify to this fact.

“Constant communication between physicians and administrators creates a productive atmosphere and keeps Good Samaritan in the forefront,” says Atindra Chatterji, MD, Good Samaritan Chief of Staff. “We are innovators,” adds Eloise Broner, Good Samaritan President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our physicians continue to make historic advances because we are all motivated first by patient needs.”

“The safety of our patients and the quality of care and service they and their families receive are at the center of our work,” agrees Mary Garman, MS, RN, Vice President of Operations and Chief Nursing Officer.

“Everyone – from the storeroom to the boardroom – is part of the team, and our bedside nurses are on the frontlines.” The American Nurses Credentialing Center recognized Good Samaritan as a Magnet hospital in 2009. “Our nurses are happy in their work,” Mary says. “In fact, a recent national survey places our nurses’ job satisfaction above average compared with nurses working in similar settings. Our patients want to be cared for by people who enjoy what they do.”

To Improve Care

For a closer look at groundbreaking work done at Good Samaritan in just the last few years, HealthTalk spoke with three physicians whose long tenure, innovative spirit and wise guidance have contributed to Good Samaritan’s ongoing leadership.

• Bruce Bernie, MD, Good Samaritan’s Medical Director for Robotic Surgery and director of the hospital’s Robotic Gynecologic Epicenter (teaching program)
• George Broderick, MD, Medical Director of Cardiology at Dayton Heart & Vascular Hospital at Good Samaritan
• Dennis Brown, MD, Medical Director for the hospital’s Joint Replacement Center

Minimally Invasive Surgery

“For minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, Good Samaritan is a regional and national leader,” says Dr. Bernie. The vast majority of all gynecologic surgeries are now minimally invasive – whether laparoscopic, robotic-assisted or by laser. This achievement did not happen overnight. Dr. Bernie remembers back to 1988 when he and his brothers, general surgeon William Bernie, MD, and urologist Jan Bernie, MD, were performing some of the country’s first laparoscopic procedures in their specialties at Good Samaritan.

“We wouldn’t be where we are today without the Sisters of Charity and their commitment to Dayton,” Dr. Bernie says. “Advanced technology is a way of life here, but it’s a ‘high-tech, high-touch’ atmosphere. We have a deep passion for the well-being of our patients.”

As for the future of surgery at Good Samaritan, Dr. Bernie predicts smaller, faster and better. “We’ll likely see advances such as voice-activated robotic-assisted procedures and surgeries via the body’s natural openings that require no incision at all.”

Learn more about Robotic Surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Cardiac Care

In the decades following the launch of the hospital’s heart program in the late 1950s, Good Samaritan Hospital opened the Midwest’s first cardiac care unit, and our physicians pioneered many procedures in the area – including the first open heart surgery, angioplasty and use of a drug-coated stent. Good Samaritan’s cardiac program – which became Dayton Heart and Vascular Hospital (DHVH) at Good Samaritan in 2009 – has always been at the forefront of regional cardiac care.

“This dynamic process takes leadership from our board of trustees, administrators, physicians and nurses,” explains Dr. Broderick. Such collaboration and an aggressive effort to streamline processes and improve outcomes recently earned DHVH three-star (out of three) recognition for highest quality excellence (based on data from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011) from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, another cardiac program first.

Cindy White, RN, an acute care nurse practitioner, says she became a cardiac nurse after seeing the “wonderful care” her father received at Good Sam after his heart attack at age 54. She began her career as a student nursing assistant in the CCU, and has seen dramatic changes over the decades. “When someone came in with a heart attack, they were treated conservatively,” Cindy recalls. “Now, we can go right to the source of the problem causing the heart attack. By opening the artery quickly, we can save heart muscle, markedly improving patients’ outcomes and prognoses.”

As technology improves, cardiac treatment is becoming less invasive and more tailored to the patient. “We are using advanced procedures to open blocked arteries in the neck and legs, repair weakened arteries in the chest, and repair or replace heart valves,” Dr. Broderick says. “Physicians in our electrophysiology lab are employing advanced techniques to control heart rhythms. In other words, we are always striving to do it better.”

Learn more about Cardiology Services at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Joint Replacement

Ever since Homayoun Mesghali, MD, performed the first arthroscopic knee procedure in Dayton in the 1970s, Good Samaritan has pioneered leading-edge joint replacement. “Five years ago, Good Samaritan was one of the first hospitals to receive the Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval for total joint replacement,” says Dr. Brown, who has specialized in complex joint reconstruction, replacement and revision surgeries for more than
20 years.

“Good Samaritan has always supported the pursuit of innovative procedures and surgeries that offer greater precision and better outcomes for our patients,” Dr. Brown says. “This can be a very expensive proposition, requiring significant commitment and investment in new equipment, but Good Samaritan has always been willing to help push the boundaries.”

“We are on the third-generation of computer-assisted total joint replacement now,”  Dr. Brown continues, “and have also introduced techniques that allow for even more precise surgical measurements.”

Orthopedists are one of many specialties to form a Premier system physician steering committee. “With lower reimbursements coming, we must be as efficient as possible while delivering the highest quality care to our patients,” Dr. Brown explains. “We are collaborating to identify best practices in our specialties and introduce them across Premier.”

Learn more about Joint Replacement at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Sister Carol Bauer	Eloise Broner	Dr. Atindra Chatterji	Dr. Bruce Bernie
Mary Garman	Dr. Dennis Brown	Dr. George Broderick	Mark Shaker

True to Our Mission

For the patients who seek our care and for our neighbors across the region, our mission to build a healthier community inspires everything we do.

“Good Samaritan was a community effort from day one,” recalls Sister Carol. “Today, in addition to welcoming everyone who needs our care, the hospital reaches out across the Dayton region to help people be safe and well. Good Samaritan’s Homeless Clinic, health screenings, education programs, and health ministries touch the lives of thousands of people.”

Good Samaritan is also a founding partner, along with the city of Dayton, in the Phoenix Project, a multi-year effort to redevelop neighborhoods around the hospital, with a focus on safety, affordable housing, recreation, schools, and retail business. “The Phoenix Project is transforming the Salem Avenue corridor and bringing a new sense of pride to the area,” says Good Samaritan President and Chief Executive Officer Eloise Broner. “Being healthy is about more than avoiding illness. It’s about your community, too.”

So even as we sum up and celebrate 80 years of innovation, progress and commitment to the people of Greater Dayton, our hands and our hearts are already turned to how we will continue to build a healthier community for the generations to come. 

Decades Firsts

Among Good Samaritan Hospital’s firsts:

• Dayton’s first open-heart surgery in 1959.
• In 1965, Dayton’s only Cobalt Unit for the latest treatment of cancer.
• Ohio’s first cardiac care unit in 1966.
• Dayton’s first angioplasty in 1981.
• Ohio’s first maternity center to combine labor, delivery, recovery, and post-partum care in one birthing suite in 1986.
• The first mitral valve repair in 1987.
• In 1989, Dayton Laser Center provided less invasive
  surgical procedures.
• In 1992, the Homeless Clinic opened.
• In 1995, Samaritan North was the nation’s then-largest outpatient facility and the first designed to be patient-centered.
• Purchased Dayton Heart Hospital and opened The Dayton Heart & Vascular Hospital at Good Samaritan in 2009.
• In 2010, robotic surgery provided minimally invasive surgical options.
• And just this year, Good Sam became the first and currently the only Dayton hospital to offer a new non-drug treatment for severe asthmatics — bronchial thermoplasty. Also performed Dayton’s first robotic, single-port gallbladder removal.

Learn more about how we serve.