(bright music)
- My name is Doctor Tony Falvello,
and I'm seeing patients at the Coordinated Health campus
in the Church Hill Mall in Hazleton.
I treat a multitude of conditions.
I'll see everything from back and neck pain
to arthritis-related pain of the hip and knee,
and also foot and ankle disorders and sports medicine.
I got interested in medicine early on
in probably high school and junior high
when I was playing a lot of sports,
and I went to a local hospital in Hazleton
to watch an orthopedic surgeon perform surgery,
and since that time I've been on the path
of orthopedic surgery and been committed to that,
knowing that's what I wanted to do.
In my younger days, I was participating
in sports quite frequently,
I played football, I played baseball,
basketball was our big sport,
and was the big sport back then,
so that was what I committed myself to.
That year, we had a great year, we went 29 and 2.
Lost our first game and our last game,
which unfortunately was the state championship,
but I was able to be a member of the team
for the first year of the Hazleton Area High School,
which really brought the community together.
In my family, we have about four or five attorneys.
We've been providing professional services
to the Hazleton area for many years.
When I got interested in medicine,
I chose to study orthopedic surgery
and always knew I wanted to come back home
and provide those services to the people in Hazleton.
I went to The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
for a number of reasons.
A lot of the doctors in Hazleton
had graduated from there,
and I sought out their advice when I was applying there
and a lot of the physicians from Hazleton gave me support
that I never could be where I am today without that.
When we got out of the book work after the first two years,
I got into the rotations, got into the hands-on medicine
and the procedures, and I loved it,
and I loved surgery, I loved being in the OR,
and you know, everybody who becomes a surgeon,
you've gotta be willing to work late and work hard
and I didn't mind that at all
because I loved what I was doing.
After medical school, I was looking
for an orthopedic surgery residency,
and again I went to a place where a lot
of physicians from Hazleton had gone.
Community General Osteopathic Hospital in Harrisburg.
That was part of the new Pinnacle Health System.
We got the great general orthopedic training
at Pinnacle Health,
we got to do trauma at Hershey Medical Center
where we had LifeLine helicopters bringing us trauma
all the time and that was a wonderful experience.
I had a great mentor there.
Mentors, I should say,
and I did pediatric training
at Children's Health Care of Atlanta,
which was the number five children's hospital
for pediatric orthopedics and there,
we got to be involved with procedures that
we are really at the cutting edge of medicine
in pediatric orthopedics.
When you walk into the door to the Coordinated Health campus
you're going to see a number of things.
In the back we have our physician offices,
and we have imaging and other departments there
that provide services that a lot of patients need
as relates to orthopedics.
In the front we have physical therapy
and other services also.
They have a great service there called Care on Demand,
which is for an urgent care setting,
injuries, work-related injuries,
things that don't need the ER,
but still need to be seen.
General orthopedic needs are the primary focus of our care.
And the most common orthopedic conditions:
arthritis, rotator cuff injuries, also trauma.
We do a significant amount of trauma.
The general orthopedic need in Hazleton is so great
and it's so underserved.
There's no reason that people should have to go
out of town to get their orthopedic care.
We can do it right here in Hazleton
and raise the bar for the standard of care as well.
We can see you for the simple issues,
we can handle those, you know,
if you've got something complicated,
we can deal with some of those,
or get you to the right place
where those things can be taken care of.
I live in the Sugarloaf Valley,
and I live with my wife Isabella
and our son Wilson.
We have a dog, Pippin, he's a big part
of our family, and accompanies me
on many hiking excursions and hunting.
We spend our free time primarily doing things afterwards.
I haven't been hunting and fishing that long,
actually it's a good friend of mine in med school
who got me into that.
We used to drive up from Philadelphia
after our rotations were over and we'd go out,
sneak a few hours of hunting in or a few hours of fishing,
and do whatever we could, and then drive back down
to Philadelphia later that night.
Growing up in Hazleton, I did get to know a lot
of the physicians, and Hazleton is a small enough town
that you know the big names and when it comes to physicians
in town, medicine nowadays is a team approach.
It's not just me and it's not just, you know,
their family doctor, that communication between me
and the other doctors in Hazleton
is so crucial to providing great care
and there are so many great physicians in Hazleton
that provide excellent care and I'm just trying
to continue that tradition.
As an orthopedic surgeon, there's many options available
to my patients as to where they have their surgery.
I will continue to serve the community
through Hazleton General Hospital,
and also through the surgery center.
We'll be able to have patients from Hazleton
have their surgeries in specialty hospitals
like is available at Coordinated Health
for many routine orthopedic procedures.
Joint replacement, outpatient surgery,
and those things that typically you had to have done
at a major center, now you have the option
of having them done at a specialty center
such as Coordinated Health.
I've treated numerous patients with injuries,
not just from local high school teams
and junior high teams and also kids
with sports injuries, but also the weekend warriors
who may injure themselves on a weekend
in a game of basketball or something like that.
I've been treating many, many work-related injuries
in Hazleton.
There's a lot of industry in Hazleton,
and there's a lot of need for work-related injuries.
The vast amount of work-related injury in orthopedics
in the area is really staggering,
and there's such a high demand for that type of care.
That's a very rewarding part of my job
because these people are usually injured,
and you know, they're coming in because they need
to get back to work and to be able to help them do that
is very rewarding.
Coming out of residency, I had other opportunities
to do things such as fellowship,
or go to other cities and do more training,
or even practice in other cities.
I always knew I wanted to come home,
obviously because of family
and my family's commitment there.
So coming back to Hazleton is something
I felt I had to do.
And in fact I knew, two years before I graduated
residency that that was my plan.
And the biggest reason for that
is the quality of people there.
There's good people in this town.
It's just a great place to live
without the high-stress lifestyle
that you find in the city.
There's a lot of rewarding things
to being an orthopedic surgeon.
You know, perhaps one of the best things
is when you see somebody come walking into your office,
and they've had a hip or knee replacement
and they were nervous about it before,
you know, they say, "I don't know if I want
"to go through with this,"
but they come in and usually it's a couple months later,
but they come in and they say,
"Thank you. Thank you so much."
And that's one of the most rewarding things,
and in orthopedics we seldom have a chance to intervene
and save lives and save limbs,
and we do do that and those people are always thanking you
and that's a rewarding part of my job,
but also it's the people who come into your office
and say, "You know, I need help,
"I want to be able to do these things
"that I couldn't do before,"
and you say, "I can help you,"
and you get them there, and that is by far
the most rewarding part of my job.
(bright music)