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South Tulsa Specialty Hospitals Filling a Need

Posted on: Monday, 20 February 2006, 09:00 CST

By Nora K. Froeschle World Staff Writer

South Tulsa's four specialty hospitals are thriving, and one of them -- Tulsa Spine and Specialty Hospital -- is growing into much more than a place to get neck or back surgery.

"We started there; that isn't where we stayed," said Dr. Steven E. Gaede, president of the hospital's governing board.

In addition to offering treatment for back and neck problems, the $20 million hospital, at 71st Street and U.S. 75, has expanded to include ear, nose and throat care for adults, some children's surgeries, such as tonsillectomies, and some women's health care.

In the past five years, the doors have opened at three specialty hospitals in south Tulsa: the Orthopedic Hospital of Oklahoma, the Tulsa Spine and Specialty Hospital and the St. Francis Heart Hospital.

Tulsa's first specialty hospital, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, opened its Southwestern Regional Medical Center in 1990, but moved from CityPlex Towers to a new location, 81st Street and U.S. 169, in 2005.

Dallas was considered, briefly, as a possible location for the new treatment center because of its proximity to a large airport, said Denise Geuder, vice president of patient services.

"We decided to stay in Tulsa because of the community," she said.

Geuder said the center's volume is up 30 percent since it moved to its new location, which is visible from U.S. 169.

For the spine hospital, the south location was just a matter of available property.

"This was the only place we could find 54 acres of land," said Terry Woodbeck, CEO of the hospital.

The hospital is 76,000 square feet and has 21 beds. A 50,000- square-foot medical office building is under construction on the grounds of the facility and is expected to be completed by June.

Woodbeck said the goal is to use the heavily wooded 20 acres that surround the hospital to build possibly another specialty hospital, such as one that treats people who have had strokes.

The spine hospital, like the orthopedic hospital, is doctor owned.

"It came about because physicians saw a need for a radically different kind of health care," said Gaede.

The spine and specialty hospital's nurse to patient ratio is four to one. Patients recovering from surgery in one of Tulsa's general hospitals often complained to their doctors that they didn't get a response to their call button request for an hour or more sometimes.

Margaret Osborne, a licensed practical nurse at the spine and specialty hospital, worked at a large hospital for years.

"Our patient ratios are nice, and it's not crazy, and you get to take care of them the way they need and deserve," Osborne said.

The higher nurse to patient ratio, and the larger issue of patient care at large hospitals, was also important to the founders of the orthopedic hospital, which opened in 2001 in CityPlex Towers.

"The only reason we opened is we found it was impossible to make that situation possible at the hospital at that time," said Dr. James Cash, one of the founding doctors of the orthopedic hospital. "We were responding to what we perceived to be the patients' needs."

The space at CityPlex Towers left vacant by CTCA made it an attractive location for the orthopedic hospital, Cash said.

"It was easy for us to renovate an existing (hospital) space," he said.

Austin Neal, director of marketing for Tower Realty Group, which manages CityPlex Towers, said there is still more hospital space available in the complex, mainly because of the departure of CTCA.

"We're working with two," Neal said, of possible specialty hospitals that might locate at the towers. "I'm not at liberty to tell you what the specialties would be, but it's looking promising."

The new cancer treatment center is 195,000 square feet and has 31 beds, though because of outpatient care, around 120 patients are in some kind of treatment at any given time, Geuder said.

"We're a much bigger outpatient center than a hospital because oncology, it's pretty much outpatient," she said.

Around 90 percent of CTCA's patients come from out of town, the center has 75 guest rooms available for patients and their loved ones.

The St. Francis Heart Hospital, which opened in 2004, is 60 percent hospital owned and 40 percent doctor owned.

St. Francis Hospital still has its own cardiac care program, said Bob Dolan, CEO of the St. Francis Heart Hospital.

"I think the rationale was, No. 1, was just the capacity on the existingcampus," Dolan said.

Dolan said ease of use issues for patients was part of the reason to make the new stand-alone facility at 10501 E. 91st St.

Cancer Treatment Centers of America is privately owned.

Source: Tulsa World

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