Clark County residents with brain or spine issues will now be treated in a dedicated inpatient unit with specialty staff at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center.
This week, the Vancouver hospital is opening its neurosciences inpatient unit — named the Thomas and Sandra Young Neurosciences Center — on the sixth floor of the hospital’s Firstenburg Tower. The hospital is hosting a blessing ceremony this evening and will begin admitting patients to the unit later this week.
“Obviously, we’re very excited this is opening,” said Dr. Ashok Modha, a neurological surgeon at Rebound Orthopedics & Neurosurgery. “There are very few places in Oregon and Southwest Washington that have dedicated neurosciences units. This is quite good news for our residents here in Southwest Washington.”
The new unit means patients with brain or spine issues — patients with brain tumors or traumatic brain injuries; those experiencing strokes or seizures; trauma patients with spinal cord injuries; people undergoing elective spine or brain surgeries — who need to be admitted to the hospital for care, will all be housed in the same area and treated by providers with specialized training in neurosciences, Modha said.
“Patients who have neurological conditions — brain tumors or strokes or spinal cord injuries — they need very specialized care,” he said. “Usually, you find outcomes for those patients are much better than if they’re admitted to generalized wards.”
Currently, neurology patients are treated in various units throughout the hospital. Having all of the providers together in one unit will allow them to focus on that specialty — nurses, for instance, were responsible for caring for patients with a variety of conditions when patients were in mixed units — and learn from each other, Modha said.
“We’ve been taking care of all these patients for the last 10 years, just not in a dedicated unit,” Modha said. “Our patient outcomes have been great despite that, but we hope with this unit, they will be even better.”
$10 million campaign
The opening of the unit marks the completion of the first phase of the PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center Foundation’s $10 million Campaign for Neurosciences Excellence. The foundation launched the effort about two years ago.
“(Today’s) ceremony represents the culmination of years of work by PeaceHealth to ensure people in Southwest Washington have access to the very best in spine and brain care,” said Carol Van Natta, the foundation’s executive director.
The foundation raised $3 million to remodel the existing space for the new 32-bed inpatient unit, with the largest gift — $1.5 million — coming from Tom and Sandra Young of Vancouver.
For the second phase, the foundation raised more than $1 million for a caregiver education endowment. The Jay D. Miller Neurosciences Caregiver Education Endowment — named in honor of Miller, a retired neurosurgeon and former medical center trustee — will ensure funding for continuing education for those who care for neurology patients, Van Natta said.
Registered nurse Jansen Alburger was hired in September to work in the hospital’s new inpatient unit and benefitted from the emphasis on specialty neurosciences education. While she has some experience working with neurology patients, the three-day training she received focused on the specific types of patients she can expect to see and issues to watch for while caring for those patients, Alburger said.
“Having a dedicated neuro floor is amazing,” she said. “Then you can really specialize and focus in on the little things you can do to improve everyday life for people.”
The final piece of the campaign is a $6 million renovation and expansion of the hospital’s inpatient rehabilitation unit. The unit is housed in the Mother Joseph Building, and patients are doubled up in rooms, which isn’t ideal, Van Natta said.
The foundation has raised $2.4 million toward that goal — the foundation is still looking for a naming gift — and officials hope to have the final phase of the effort completed next summer, Van Natta said.
When the $10 million campaign is complete, PeaceHealth Southwest will have enhanced its neurosciences care, which is already an area of strength for the hospital, and helped to keep people close to home for treatment, Van Natta said.
“If you have a stroke, you want to be treated right away,” she said. “Time is absolutely of the essence with any sort of brain or spine issue.”
