The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle - Eye on Health

Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital: providing the highest level of care in the specialty areas

As its name implies, Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital's practice reaches far beyond its renowned work in orthopedics, pain management and the spine.

At Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital, the term "specialty" includes a wide range of services and procedures that are in high demand in the area.

Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital, 10720 Nall Ave. in Overland Park, was founded by leading physicians from multiple practices and specialties located throughout the Kansas CIty area. Opening in September 2003 with approximately 20 physicians on the medical staff, Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital has expanded the scope of practice to include new specialties and grown the medical staff to more than 80 physicians representing nine specialties.

Those specialties include:

• Orthopedics and pediatric orthopedics
• Bariatrics
• Ear, nose and throat
• General surgery
• Hands (carpal tunnel repair, tendon repair and joint reconstruction)
• Vascular
• Cosmetic/reconstructive surgery

" Heartland is trying to do something unique," said Federico Gonzalez, MD, FACS, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital. "We are trying to give the highest level of care in many areas in addition to specializing in surgical treatment."

Gonzalez, a board-certified plastic surgeon and hand surgeon, said Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital offers a full spectrum of plastic surgery procedures.

Although many people think of cosmetic surgery when they think of plastic surgery, the specialty also includes head and neck cancer treatment, skin cancer treatment, breast reconstruction, trunk and lower extremity reconstruction, and hand surgery, he said.

The plastic surgery specialty has changes as society has changed, Gonzalez said. Head and neck trauma due to car accidents has decreased as the use of seat belts and airbags has increased. Meanwhile, the demand for cosmetic surgery has gone up as the large number of baby boomers age.

From plastic surgery to the other specialties offered at Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital, physicians have been at the center of its inception and development.

"From the top down physicians are involved in decisions of how the hospital functions," Gonzalez said. "It's a hospital we really enjoy working at."

Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital has been successful over the years and prides itself on maintaining high standards of care. For example, the infection rates at Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital average .5 to .7 percent versus the average in the industry at 5 percent.

In addition, the national average for staff turnover is 15 to 20 percent. At Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital, the turnover rate is at 5 percent and has never been higher than 10 percent.

Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital combines the feeling of a community hospital with state-of-the-art equipment and specialized expertise of a major medical center.

There are 19 private inpatient rooms at Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital. To replicate the "home away from home" environment, each room has digital cable TV/music, a plasma flat-screen HDTV and also physical therapy equipment. The environment makes patients more comfortable and helps facilitate the rehabilitation process.

Other patient rooms include 10 overnight short-stay recovery suites, 20 pre- and post-procedure full-privacy walled suites, five Level-1 post-anesthesia care beds and one Level-1 private adolescent recovery suite.

Heartland's all-digital radiological suite offers state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment including:

• - A 3.0 Tesla MRI scanner with twice the power of other scanners Ñ the only one of its kind in the Kansas City area
• - A 16-slice CT scanner that improves detail and decreases radiation exposure
• - Advanced Myelographic/Angiography Suite
• - Ultrasound services
• - Dexascan/Bone Density screening

Patients at Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital value the hospital's privacy, personal attention and serene atmosphere. Heartland has a 97 percent patient satisfaction rating, according to third-party pollster Press Ganey.

For more information, visit Heartland Spine & Specialty Hospital at www.hssh.org, call the patient referral line at 1-800-DPC-HSSH, or ask your physician if he or she performs procedures at Heartland. The hospital accepts most major insurance plans.