Local surgery center provides innovative spine surgeries

"Though we’ve been open for almost two years, the facility is still brand new," surgeon Ken Rich said. "I’ve had friends who have worked in other ambulatory surgery centers who come in and are amazed it’s so new and clean and everything is up to date."

The outpatient facility focuses on care which meets rigid quality control standards, including guidelines set by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care. At the same time, the setting is both more comfortable and more affordable than a hospital.

"It’s totally different from a hospital where they might be prepping 20 patients for surgery at 7:30," Rich said. "At most, we might be preparing two people at 7:30. It’s more relaxing, more soothing. You get pretty much your own nurse in pre-op. You actually get people that spend a lot more one-on-one time with you."

This approach is possible due to the surgery center’s team pod system.

"When you are dealing with a private, small group like us, we have the ability to run our practice how we see fit," Neurosurgeon and partner Lars Gardner said. "We have set physician teams. I have my one nurse and one physician assistant who work with me."

Because of this, an individual patient connects with the same people before, during, and after treatment.

"On most days of the year, my patients are going to be interacting with someone on my team," Gardner said. "We talk about these patients. We know them really well, and I think that helps with the patient care experience because they know the person they’re talking with on the phone already knows them."

This continuity of care can also lead to better outcomes than in hospital settings. Medical errors and miscommunication between doctors and their teams are less common when they work with patients on a regular basis, Gardner noted.

Technological innovation reduces pain, recovery time, and cost

Always seeking to improve patient experience, Raleigh Neurosurgical & Spine Surgery Center spends time researching and practicing the most innovative techniques in surgery.

"We performed the first lumbar fusion in a North Carolina surgery center using a robot," Rich said. "[Robotics] allow you to do some very sophisticated surgeries. We did a lumbar fusion today, in fact. In the past, it would have been a four-night stay in a hospital, but they are going home today."

Other common procedures performed include:

Few neurosurgical and spine centers can offer these types of procedures because of the increased training associated with implementing new technologies.

"The first 100 surgeries are harder and require a different mentality when treating these cases with newer techniques and devices," Gardner said. "A lot of groups become frustrated by this learning curve. We are comfortable because, as a group, we want to be as up-to-date as possible. The upfront cost and time to learn them will reap better patient outcomes in the long term."

This attitude has not only put the center at the forefront of new spinal and cranial surgeries over the last decade, it has allowed for lower costs to patients than other places can offer.

Rich said, "Some of the procedures we do would cost three times more if you did them in the hospital. At our surgery center, it’s less expensive and just as safe, or safer, because you don’t have as many individuals involved in the care."