CityView Magazine

2 | September/October 2016 People have surgery for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's to diagnose a problem. Other times it's to treat a disease or disorder. In many cases, the surgery can save a life. Cape Fear Valley Health performs more than 15,000 surgeries a year, both inpatient and outpatient. That makes surgery one of the health system's busiest and most important service lines. As the flagship hospital, Cape Fear Valley Medical Center performs a majority of the health system's inpatient surgeries. The number hovers around 4,500 annually. Susan Dees, Corporate Director of Surgical Services, says the steady performance is impressive, due to the recent economy and insurance industry changes. "Most people are just putting off surgery," she said. "It's like that at hospitals nationwide. We've been very fortunate we haven't seen a big dip." What's more impressive is how the main hospital's general surgery volumes are actually growing. Often considered a hospital's "bread and butter" service line, these procedures focus on abdominal organs, such as the gastrointestinal tract, liver, pancreas and gall bladder. They can also deal with the skin, soft tissue, trauma and vascular surgery. Dees says gastric bypass, ear, nose and throat (ENT), and neurosurgical procedures are doing particularly well. She expects vascular surgery to do the same this year, thanks to a returning surgeon. One of the area's only two Cleveland Clinic-accredited cardiothoracic surgeons briefly left the area, but has since returned. It has allowed heart procedures, such as coronary bypasses and open-heart surgery, at the Heart & Vascular Center to resume at a steady pace. Hoke Hospital in Raeford is also experiencing a rise in surgeries. The new facility's ORs now operate three days a week to accommodate demand. Bladen County Hospital in Elizabethtown should see similar growth with the arrival of a new general surgeon at Bladen Healthcare. Ambulatory Care Outpatient procedures at Cape Fear Valley are growing just as fast, if not faster, than general surgeries. The insurance industry's move to lower patient treatment costs and a greater willingness by patients to recover at home is fueling the growth. Treating patients without hospitalization is called outpatient or ambulatory care. The number of ambulatory procedures has tripled over the past 30 years to more than 54 million annually. Eye operations, joint and muscle repairs, lumpectomies, nerve treatments and gall bladder removals, are the most common. The popularity of ambulatory care centers, which specialize in outpatient procedures, has followed suit in the U.S. Cape Fear Valley's facility is called the Short Stay Center, and it's located at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. Dees says plans are to renovate the second floor unit to accommodate expected growth. The goal is to keep the Short Stay Center competitive with other ambulatory centers in the region. Under the Skin s u r g i c a l s e r v i c e s a t c a p e f e a r v a l l e y h e a lt h Surgery: A vital service for both the community and Cape Fear Valley Health.

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