I met Lauren Sheprow, the Director of Media Relations, and Stephen Roggemann, the Assistant Director of Nursing at the fifth floor of the hospital lobby. We were just on time as the busy elevator door opened. A stream of doctors, nurses, patients and visitors left as another group went in. So, in a crowded elevator, my hospital tour began.
Our first stop was on the South Side of the Nineteenth Floor where many of the surgical cancer patients reside. This is where the many of the bone marrow transplants occur, and where leukemia, lymphoma and other cancer-related illnesses are treated. With eighteen patients, the department provides care in general adult hematology and chemotherapy, and provides nutritionists, psychiatrists and religious counsel for the comfort of patients. Near the end of the hallway, the more serious patients reside in an isolated area with lists on every window and door detailing careful directions for visitors, such as the necessity of gloves and masks to prevent any chance of infection from outside sources.
Mr. Roggemann also showed us a new program called the Pyxis System that the hospital has installed to more efficiently monitor the intake and outtake of prescriptions. This system shortens the prescription process, allowing nurses to directly enter their patients’ name to obtain the prescription, which has already been entered by the pharmacy, instead of having to go through a doctor. The Pyxis system also has a fail safe program to prevent abuse. Each transaction is recorded and a limit is set on the quantity of medicine available.
Next, we stopped at the eighteenth floor, north side, where the trauma patients are located. It is an intermediate care system, meaning there is one nurse for every four patients. On the walls were charts indicating the downward trend of hospital-related patient accidents, and other information. On 13 North, on thirty beds in isolation, the serious neurology cases like seizure and epilepsy patients were found. Stony Brook is the primary source of neurological care Suffolk County. As a tertiary care center, Stony Brook provides care for difficult and complicated cases involving patients referred from neurologists and other specialists from all over New York.
After visiting several other departments, Mr. Roggemann ended the tour with a visit to the pediatrics department. It was an amazing experience looking at the nursery and seeing beautiful and precious babies as they slept. This was a sharp contrast to the babies we saw first – tiny ones that weighed less than a pound, and with very bleak futures.
During the tour, I noticed the word ‘CARE’ posted, which stands for the values that the hospital holds dear (CARE is an acronym for commitment, accountability, respect and excellence). While I had seen only a portion of the hospital, Stony Brook University Medical Center, with 504 beds, is in fact a large institution focused on excellence in patient care.
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