Walking into our hearts

The Spokane Shriners Hospital has 5 floors. The 5^th floor houses the OR and administrative offices like finance and performance improvement. The 4^th and 3^rd floors are home to patient care areas such as OPC, inpatient, rec therapy, social work, and nutrition. From the 5^th floor all the way down to the 1st floor with security and environmental services, all the staff had a singular experience, a singular unifying force.  This force was a 7-year-old boy from Gaza who stayed as a patient receiving prosthetic legs. His name was Wesseem, and “force” is an understatement.

Wesseem was born with a condition known as bilateral tibial hemimlia, a condition causing a malformation in his lower legs. Arrangements were made by the Washington State chapter of the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, a non-profit organization created “to address the medical and humanitarian crisis facing Palestinian youths in the Middle East.” Working with the care management team at the Spokane Shriners Hospital, arrangements were made to bring Wesseem and his mother, Sadia from their home in Gaza to Spokane with the goal of giving the young boy the ability to walk.

When mother and son arrived in Spokane, neither spoke a single word of English. As Wesseem recovered from the bilateral amputation surgery to prepare his legs to fit into custom prosthetics, the staff (nurses and security guards alike) took to teaching the lad English words and phrases. Soon his legs were healed enough to fit into his first pair of prosthetics. As Wesseem’s coordination improved, so did his English. His world expanded at the same rate as his vocabulary. Neither could keep pace, however, with the growth of his confidence. It wasn’t long before the entire hospital was introduced to a personality that would leave its mark long after he was reunited with his father and three siblings in Gaza.

With an open floor plan from ground to 5^th floor, the voice they would all come to know could be heard from anywhere in the hospital. At any point, anyone could know where he was just by listening. He raced his physical therapists down the halls, narrowly missing a nurse walking out of a room. She would smile affectionately as he sped away on his wheelchair at first…then a walker, then crutches and finally on his prosthetics without any help! Wesseem was nearing his dream of walking; of playing soccer with his friends.

Wesseem didn’t know was that as he was racing he was also learning. As he walked down to the security desk, only to call someone from the 5^th floor to bring him water, he was growing in skill and strength. Finally, he was ready. He had made new friends, nay, family and learned a new language. He learned to walk. Staff watched Wesseem walk out the front doors. Then, they did what they always do. They wiped away bittersweet tears of joy and pride and turned back to the inpatient rooms ready to give their hearts to the next child, just now checking in.

 

A Focus on Therapy

A Spokane Cerebral Palsy patient exercises on a special bike at the Shriners Hospital rehab gym. This bike is good for building strength and endurance while reducing the chance of injury from a fall.

Shriners Hospitals for Children – Spokane is constantly striving to improve the quality of care as well as the patient and family experience before, during and after their visit. One of the things that fulfill both of these aspirations is having as much of the total care package under one roof. This is why we have, not only the region’s experts in pediatric orthopaedic surgery, but we also have a fully inclusive rehabilitation services department. Within this department, the Spokane Shriners Hospital offers both physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT).

The distinction between OT and PT is subtle but important, the difference can be understood best as: OT involves regaining and assisting in fine motor skills while PT deals with gross motor skills. For example, in PT, a patient will work on larger movements such as walking. The Spokane Shriners Hospital has a fully equipped rehabilitation gym where our physical therapists conduct on-on-one supervised exercises with our patients.

In addition, their gait therapy may include stairs or hallway walking and might use assistive devices like crutches or walkers. In OT, they work on fine motor skills, upper extremities and ADLs (Activities of Daily Living). ADLs include routine tasks such as personal hygiene, getting dressed and going to the restroom.

Like the physical therapist, the occupational therapist will use stretches, exercises and possibly assistive devices to accomplish their goals. In both cases, the goal is the same: shorten recovery time, increase the effectiveness of treatment and improve the overall quality of life of our patients.

Congratulations to one of our own!

Shriners Hospitals for Children — Spokane would like to congratulate Dr. William Bronson M.D. for being recognized as one of the area’s top doctors in the Pediatric Orthopaedics category of the Best Doctors in America® 2014 list. Dr. Bronson was one of only 8 orthopaedic surgeons in the region recognized in the list published by Bozzi Media in their March 2014 issue of Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Living Magazine. He is also the only orthopaedic surgeon recognized in the list that specializes in pediatrics.
Dr. William Bronson has been a consulting surgeon at the hospital since 1992 but joined the staff as a full time surgeon early in 2013. Dr. Bronson is a board certified Orthopaedic Surgeon with fellowship training in pediatric orthopaedics; his interests include general pediatric orthopaedics and spinal surgery.
Congratulations to Dr. Bronson and to the rest of the doctors in the “Best Doctors of 2014” list! Thank you all for providing such great care to the patients you treat!

Care Coordination: The Shriners Hospital Difference

Imagine this: you’re in the hospital.  You are there because your knee was injured and you have surgery scheduled for tomorrow.  That’s all you know.

I know, I didn’t give you much to work with.  The fact is that actual patients in actual hospitals don’t get much more information than this.

If you are like most people, you are probably nervous.  You have questions you want answered.  You want to know that your medical care providers are all on the same page when it comes to your care.  You want to know that everything will be managed with expertise, kindness and compassion.  Am I close?

Shriners Hospitals for Children® — Spokane recognizes that a hospital visit can be a vulnerable time for anyone, but especially for children, parents and families.  This is not a time for caregivers to simply deliver medical procedures.  That care must be coordinated so that it is seamless, giving confidence and comfort to patients and families.

The Spokane Shriners Hospital’s care coordination model is designed to deliver family-centered and patient-centered care.  In this model, a care coordinator oversees families and patients as long as they are under Shriners Hospital’s care.  Care coordination proactively works on a plan of care for each patient.  Coordinators communicate with the team to provide seamless care.  They facilitate transitions in care as the patient moves between departments and finally back home.  Additionally, care coordinators connect patients with community resources and align resources with patient needs.

What does this mean?  It’s simple.  The care coordination team consists of registered nurses and social workers.  The registered nurses work with your physician to plan the care for individual patients.  The social workers accommodate transportation, housing, community resources and financial counseling as well as patient and family resources. 

This benefits the patient by giving them confidence in always knowing who to turn to when they have questions.  They can get to know one person well by talking to the same person every time, creating a level of comfort that would otherwise not be present.  They know that their Care Coordinator will address any concerns and questions with everyone who has a hand in their care.  Ultimately, care coordination offers comfort to ordinary people in vulnerable situations.  Imagine that.