Medical City Healthcare | Take Care | Winter 2019

NEW LEASE ON LIFE Watch LaShonda and her care team talk about her cancer experience at MedicalCityHealthcare.com/ TakeCare . GUT FEELING Abdominal pain is the No. 1 reason for ER visits in the U.S. Read more at MedicalCityHealthcare.com/TakeCare . KNOW BEFORE YOU GO Learn more about HBEDs at MedicalCityHealthcare.com/ TakeCare . The benefits of hospital- based ERs Hospital-based emergency departments (HBEDs) are off-campus ERs that are affiliated with hospitals, such as the one LaShonda Holmes Wells went to. HBEDs can offer: >> Full-service, 24/7/365 emergency care >> Board-certified physicians and specially trained staff >> Pediatric expertise and training >> Seamless transition to a hospital if a higher level of care is needed Medical City Healthcare has seven HBEDs in addition to emergency rooms located at 13 hospitals. Visit MedicalCityER.com for locations and information. LASHONDA HOLMES WELLS, 45, HAD A LOT TO LIVE FOR WHEN SHE CHECKED IN TO MEDICAL CITY ER SAGINAW WITH STOMACH PAIN. Other than abdominal pain, LaShonda couldn’t pinpoint any additional symptoms. She just knew something was wrong. The staff immediately brought her to a room and ordered testing. When Wendy Chan, MD, the attending emergency medicine physician, came to see her, the staff already had reports of critical labs. Dr. Chan performed a thorough physical exam and ordered ad- ditional testing. “The CAT scans showed that she had a pretty-good-sized mass in her kidney,” Dr. Chan said. “I consulted our urologist, who confirmed that the mass was defi- nitely abnormal.” LaShonda was referred to the urologist for follow-up. Her ER nurse, Liz Reed, RN, made sure she went. “I went to the urologist and found out I had stage I cancer,” LaShonda said. “What I went in to the ER for was totally different from what I left with.” Now cancer-free LaShonda was quickly sched- uled for a partial nephrectomy— a surgery that removes a renal tumor while preserving the remainder of the kidney. “I am now 100 percent cancer- free,” LaShonda said. “The staff at Medical City ER Saginaw went above and beyond in taking care of me…to make sure that I fol- lowed up with my treatment. I am now living life to the fullest with my husband and 6-year-old son. This has totally changed my life.” “I think LaShonda’s experi- ence shows the culture we have at Medical City,” said Erik Waller, RN, Director of Medical City ER Saginaw. “She had a physician who was willing to sit down and listen to her symptoms and not dismiss her concerns. She had a nurse who was willing to make sure she sought follow-up care. She found a potentially lethal di- agnosis a lot earlier. She was able to get aggressive treatment, and now she’s cancer-free. It really just gave her kind of a new lease on life.” 11 MedicalCityHealthcare.com