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A Caring Profession

A Caring Profession

Letter from Mustapha Kibirige, M.D., President and CEO

The people who choose healthcare as a career feel compelled to aid others. This is a caring profession at every level, and Humble Surgical Hospital has made community and global outreach one of its core values.

The hospital donates both funds and personnel to help those who do not have easy access to medical care. In this issue of our newsletter we tell the story of Dr. Ifeolumipo Sofola, a specialist in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, who traveled to Nigeria with a number of other HSH staff members to help thousands of residents in need of treatment. This is a semi-annual mission that HSH wholeheartedly supports.

On a local level, HSH has put forth a tremendous effort to help residents in need, and will continue to do so. Our outreach program that provides cataract surgery to those in need has been extremely successful. Our surgeons deliver the best quality treatment to people who would not otherwise have access to this sight-saving surgery. The success that we have seen since opening Humble Surgical Hospital has been incredibly gratifying. As we continue to meet more of our neighbors and build rela¬tionships with them, we hope to strengthen that bond.

We are proud to serve the people of Humble, and glad to be a contributing member of the community.

 

Helping Hands

HSH surgeon travels with a medical team to treat patients in Nigeria

“I believe that we have a responsibility to our fellow man,” says Dr. Ifeolumipo Sofola, who specializes in facial and reconstructive surgery at HSH. “We who have been given the opportunity to learn such a profession as medicine should reach out and make an impact in our communities with those skills, especially to those less fortunate.”

As part of Humble Surgical Hospital’s team of physicians, he has always made time in his schedule to help those in need, both in the HSH community outreach program and through medical missions around the world. His work has allowed him to participate in the “Faces of Honors” program (of which he is a co-founder), which provides reconstructive surgery to veterans across the United States, and to travel and give medi¬cal services to those in Mexico and South America for which he has received recognition.

Most recently, Dr. Sofola traveled with other HSH caregiv¬ers to Ibadan, Nigeria, to treat more than 5,000 patients in need at one of the city’s major hospitals. The mission was carried out in conjunction with the Moses Lake Medical Team, a church-based group in Washington that was formed about four years ago. Dr. Sofola has been involved with the group for the past three years.

“Ibadan, one of the largest cities in Nigeria, once had one of the premier universities and hospitals in all of West Africa,” says Dr. So¬fola. “It was essentially the Harvard of Africa, and medical care there in the 1950s and 1960s was unparalleled. But over the years there has been a deterioration of every infrastructure there, including health services. So now a large portion of residents do not have access to basic medical care.” In the short time he was in Ibadan, Dr. Sofola performed numerous surgeries to correct cleft palates, as well as some difficult head and neck surgeries. A nearby church served as a triage center and clinic, open to anyone who needed medical attention. Hospitals in the area brought in their most difficult cases, asking the team to assist them in treatment.

Sharing their knowledge and skills with local physicians is as much a goal of the trip as treating pa¬tients. On this trip, Dr. Sofola gave a presentation to a group of high level academic staff at the hospital, helping to ensure that the team’s work would continue on after they left. “We do not want to be itin¬erary surgeons,” says Dr. Sofola. “We don’t want to operate and then just go away. One way we do that is to impart knowledge to our fellow doctors and em¬power them to provide fol¬low-up for us, to keep close touch with the patients seen. When we return, we see those same patients.” The next mission to Nigeria is scheduled to occur in April. Dr. Sofola is proud that a team from Humble Surgical Hospital will once again participate.

 

Breakthrough Treatments Now Available For People Who Suffer With Back Pain

For people who suffer with back pain, treatment can be as hard to deal with as the condition itself. Spinal surgery can require weeks of recovery time, with limited movement. The cost of such surgery is also significant.

But there is now a treatment option for some conditions that cuts both cost and recovery time. HSH has invested in equipment required for minimally invasive spine surgery that uses small incisions and an operating microscope to repair the damaged spine. Patients have almost immediate relief and can resume an active life in a matter of days rather than weeks.

The hospital also offers occipital nerve stimulation for those with chronic headaches. In this procedure, a small device is implanted near the occipital nerve, which has been associated with headache problems. The implanted device has a power source that sends electrical impulses to the nerve, less¬ening the severity and frequency of chronic headache.

Looking Back, Looking Forward HSH accomplished much in 2011, with greater successes to come in 2012

Humble Surgical Hospital opened its doors a little more than a year ago with the goal of providing top quality surgical services to the Humble community. In a short time in this brand new building, HSH physicians and staff have secured a remarkable reputation for care and service. From the start, staff members and physicians have worked as a cohesive team, and built strong working re¬lationships with a suite of independent contractors and service providers for the hospital.

Ninety physicians have joined the staff, including specialists in ENT, podiatry, ophthalmology, pain management, orthopedics, spine and GI, as well as full-time hospitalists who attend to inpatient care and emergency depart¬ment needs.

There were just under 5,000 surgeries performed in the hospital’s first year, with overwhelmingly positive outcomes and patient satisfaction levels. Toward the last quarter of 2011, some key additions were made to enhance the level of care and service. A new Chief Nursing Officer, with unparalleled expertise in surgical care and in hospital manage¬ment, a full-time respiratory therapist and full-time pharmacist were added to the staff, and 24-hour onsite and remote phar¬macy services were brought on to boost the hospital’s suite of services. In addition to establishing a high standard of care and ser¬vice for its patients, HSH made improving our community health a priority. An outreach program provides cataract surgery for patients who would not otherwise have ac¬cess to top quality medical care. The hospital also has a scholarship fund for high school graduates who are pursuing a career in healthcare.

In 2012, these efforts to serve all members of its com¬munity will remain a strong core value. HSH is dedi¬cated to offering the latest techniques and treatments available to patients, and will continue to acquire the latest medical technology as it comes to market in order to provide that level of service. The next major advance for the hospital has already begun. In December, ground was broken for a new medical building, which will house a number of spe¬cialty institutes that will serve as centers of excel¬lence and authority in the areas of spine pain, sinus, orthopedics and wellness. This will provide patients in the Humble area an easily accessible path to proper care for specific medical issues.

Our Dynamic Services

Humble Surgical Hospital strives to provide quality accessible healthcare within our community. We provide a full range of medical services in a caring and courteous atmosphere, making Humble the Hospital of choice for patients and physicians. Some of the many services that make Humble such a unique surgical Hospital are listed below: We offer Specialty services like Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), Pain Management services and much more.

In addition, we offer a wide range of mini¬mally invasive Surgeries. General Plastic Podiatric Spine Pain Radiology Vascular Orthopedics Ophthalmology Gastroenterology

Add much more….

 

Enter Smiling

Patients get the VIP treatment from the moment they walk into HSH

 

For a long time, many healthcare professionals equated successful outcomes with a good patient experience. If a problem has been properly treated and the patient feels better, the logical conclusion was that the patient was satisfied.

But any patient who arrives at a hospital for surgery is bound to be nervous, no matter how much confidence they have in their doctor. The surroundings and the actions of every staff member can serve to soothe those fears or heighten them.

“Humble Surgical Hospital was designed so that it doesn’t feel like a typical hospital environment,” says Mustapha Kibirige, President and CEO of HSH. “Pa¬tients are immediately offered a seat when they come in. We maintain a relaxing environment from the time of admission until the moment of departure, with one-to-one customer and staff interaction.”

Because HSH has developed a philosophy of care that emphasizes patient comfort at every point, it is seeing remarkable patient satisfaction scores in customer surveys and earning unsolicited praise in a number of forums.