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Hi, I'm Sally Thorner and welcome to the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Since you're coming here for neurosurgery, we wanna show you
and your family around so you know where you're going.
And what to expect upon arrival.
Now adult neurosurgery takes place here at the Shakes Ia tower
which is connected to the Orlean Street garage via this bridge.
We also have valet parking at the main entrance.
John Hopkins neurosurgery at the John Hopkins hospital, has been ranked as
the leading neurosurgery specialty in the United States for the last few years.
And US news and World Report's best hospitals rankings.
The doctors, nurses, researchers and staff are all
dedicated to advancing the understanding and treatment of
diseases that may need neuro-surgical care, including brain
tumors, aneurysms, spinal cord tumors for adults and children.
The first step of your journey is to go
directly to the third floor of the Ziad Tower.
I'm here with Doctor Jon Weingart who's Professor of Neurosurgery and Oncology and
also the Director of the Neurosurgical Operating
Rooms here at the John Hopkins Hospital.
Doctor Weingart, thanks for taking the time to show us around.
>> Sally, it's great to be here.
>> It's nice to meet you.
So when patients come in for neurosurgery they, they and their families come here
and they can actually check in on Zaid three at the prep and packu area.
>> Right.
So they'll come in and they come up to the third
floor and then they come in this area here and then there's
a little check-in area here with a register and that will give
information back to the nurses in the prep area that they're here.
Then there's a waiting area over to the right which serves both as
the prep waiting area as well as the, the family waiting area during surgery.
And then once the prep nurse has got their, their area ready for them, they'll
come back to the prep area, where they get their IV and get prepared for surgery.
Now in the, the waiting area, that's where the families wait during
the surgery and where'll they get updates about how things are going.
And there are a variety of resources there to
help them understand where things are in the surgery.
There's a monitor up on the wall that gives a color feedback as to
where things are in the surgery, so
they can have some expectation about what's happening.
The customer service coordinator is a person who sits at the
desk there and helps the family sort of organize their day.
They can take cell phone numbers, so if the family needs
to be off the floor they'll have a way to contact them.
>> Mm-hm.
>> And they can also provide other information
about food, and things like that during the day.
And finally, the the nurse in the operating room
usually calls into the waiting area every hour to hour-and-a-half.
To kind of give the family an update as to
where things stand in the surgery, so they can kind
of have a feeling for when things are gonna end
and when they're gonna hear information back from the doctor.
>> That's gotta help.
Can we take a look at prep and recovery, Doctor?
>> I think that would be a great idea.
>> Prep and recovery, meaning the patients come here before the surgery and
then if they don't go to the Neuro, CCU, they're recovering here as well.
>> That's correct.
It serves as two functions.
The first is a surgery preparing function where the patient
comes back from the waiting room that we were just in.
>> Mm-hm.
>> Gets their IV and gets a variety of
things taken that takes place before going to surgery.
And then the second function is after surgery they can recover here,
if they're not, as you mentioned going to the intensive care unit.
When they do come back from the waiting room in preparation for surgery this
is where the IV is put in, it's where they get into their gown.
And then a variety of people will come in and ask them questions.
The nurse from the prep unit will ask them questions,
the OR nurse will come in and ask them some questions.
Two anesthesiologists will come to visit and somebody from the surgical team.
A lot of those questions are redundant, and they're all for patient safety.
>> And all the bays are private, by the way.
>> They're all private.
And once some these, the IVs put in, and the patients in their gown, then the
family's invited back, and they can sit with
them while they're waiting to go to surgery.
And then once the OR is ready, the anesthesiologist will come get the patient
and escort them to the operating room,
which is right around the corner over here.
>> Okay can we go take a look?
>> Let's go take a look.
>> So Dr. Weingard tell me about the OR
>> Well we're here in our new operating rooms today we have
nine new surgical operating rooms, and we do a variety of different
cases, we do major brain surgery operations for tumors and for aneurysms
and other brain vascular malformations, we do very complex spine surgeries also.
This particular room that we're in is the inter-operative
MRI scan room, and this is a very special
room that very few centers have in the country,
let alone even the, the Mid-Atlantic or Northeastern area.
And it has an MRI scanner within the room that can slide
out and do an MRI scan on the patient during the surgery.
The advantage of that is that the surgeon
can get an update about what he's accomplished
then if he had planned to do more, he can then do that during the same surgery.
So big advantage for the patient.
We have nine operating rooms as I said we do all kinds of surgery.
We do 3,035 cases a year.
When the patient comes in the room, there are all kinds of people here in the room.
Nurses, anesthesiologists, different kinds of technicians and the,
everyone gives the patient information about what's happening.
Person goes off to sleep and then they wake up in the recovery room.
>> So once the surgery is over what happens to the patient?
>> It's a great question.
So they go right from the operating room either to the recovery room or to the
intensive care unit and where they go depends
on the complexity of the surgery and the risk.
That follow after surgery, if a patient's going right
to the intensive care unit, they'll go right from
the operating room to the intensive care unit and
then the family will be able to see them there.
Usually about 45 minutes to an hour later,
and there's another waiting room for that intensive care
unit and the surgeon often times will talk to
a family there about what happened during the surgery.
>> Okay, great information all of it, Dr. Weingard.
Thanks.
>> Great.
>> Next up the NCCU.
We're just down the hall from the OR in the NCCU, and
Angie Feurer is the Assistant Manager of the Neuroscience Critical Care Unit.
Thank you so much for the tour.
>> You're welcome.
Let's take a look inside one of the rooms.
>> Okay.
So what can patients and their families expect in the NCCU Angie?
>> Well Sally we are 24 bed neuro-critical care unit.
All of our rooms are private.
>> Mm-hm.
>> And our team is comprised of nurse practitioners,
physicians, nurses that work
collaboratively with the neurosurgery team.
To look at the best way to transition the patient to the acute care environment.
We have state of the art medical equipment, which we're
very proud of and our nurses are in the Neuroscience Acute
Care Unit and the NCCU are specialty trained to care
for the unique needs of the neurosurgery patient during their recovery.
>> Excellent.
>> So we have a split screen monitor.
For each of the nurses to view, so they can see who
the patients that they're responsible for, throughout the day at any time.
>> Now I'm not hearing any overhead paging.
>> That's correct.
The nurses and clinical team actually carry a phone, and with
this phone they receive messages from other members of the team.
The family and patient are able to communicate with the
nurse by pressing the call bell and they receive that call.
The phone also receives alarms from the bed and the cardiac monitor,
so it's really made a great improvement in the care of our patients.
>> I'm sure everybody appreciates the quiet.
Now what about these customer service coordinators, what's that about?
>> Well the customer service coordinator is
a relatively new role to Johns Hopkins.
It is customer service focused.
We have one in every one of our neuroscience units.
And they meet daily to discuss the expected
flow of patients in the department from the various
units, and try to find ways to enhance the
customer service experience for our patients and their families.
>> So, that's the NCCU.
>> It is.
Would you like to take a look at one of our patient units?
>> Great.
Not all patients receive neurosurgery here and up in the NCCU.
Some will come here to an acute inpatient unit on the 12th floor of the Ziad Tower.
Also patients who are in the NCCU will
ultimately come to these rooms before going home.
So Angie, if you could, tell us about
the care the patients receive in these gorgeous rooms.
>> Whether the patient recovers in the Pacio environment or the
NCCU, they will ultimately come here to the acute care floors.
We do have 52 private beds that we can offer.
We have a place for the family to stay in the room if they'd like
and we also have a bathroom with an on suite bath and walk in shower.
We're also offering a way to order their
meals by using a menu to select rather than
having rely on a preselected menu so, we,
we're pleased we can offer that to our patients.
>> Right.
And also patients' families can order off that menu too, right?
>> That is correct.
So once the patient's ready to go home, how do you make that happen?
>> We have a very collaborative team that pulls together to look at the
patient's unique transfer or discharge needs such
as physical therapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, nutrition.
We really wanna make sure the patient is
prepared for a seamless transfer or discharge home.
>> Great information.
Thank you so much, Angie.
>> You're welcome.
>> So I hope that all of this
information has been helpful for you, because the
goal, as always, is to provide the best,
safest care possible for patients and their families.
Thanks for watching.
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