Lakewood Ranch Medical Center earns a feel-good award

As a pair of nurses squeezed past and hurried in and out of patient rooms, Dr. John Yee stood in a hallway at the Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine at the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center and considered a question.

What does it mean to the center, and the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center overall, to have earned the Center of Distinction Award for clinical excellence as presented by Healogics, the nation's largest wound care management company?

The national award was presented this month because the center achieved "outstanding clinical outcomes for 12 consecutive months, including patient satisfaction higher than 92 percent and a wound healing rate of at least 91%.

Yee, the medical director of the center, paused for a moment, then looked down the hallway in an attempt to find something more important he should be doing. Unsuccessful, he answered the best he could.

"I don't think what we are doing here is anything special," he said.

Standing next to Yee, (administrative) Director Mario Garruto attempted to shine some light on Yee's statement. He explained the center is similar to Schroeder-Manatee Ranch's master plan for Lakewood Ranch itself, with every part of the plan being based on doing things the right way. He said the center isn't blazing new trails, just following the right one, every time.

The treatment offered at the Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine is not that much different than any wound center might offer, but the staff is instructed to treat every patient as if he or she was their only patient.

"If everyone would do this, there wouldn't be an award," Yee said.

Garruto said they have a saying at the Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine that "We don't treat a hole in the patient, we treat the patient as a whole."

It all starts with Yee, who was recruited by Garruto to run the center, which has been open a year and a half.

"Dr. Yee has an objective, a mission, for every patient," Garruto said. "He goes the extra mile, and then follows up."

Yee said he just loves the hands-on environment that is offered at the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center.

"It's the atmosphere here," he said. "I wanted a people environment and I wanted to work in a place that was stress free, easy going. I wanted to be part of a team.

"Here, everyone believes in what they do, the whole mission. It's about seeing things through to the very end."

The Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine opened in 2015. Medical Center CEO Andy Guz said it was made available to the community to heal chronic wounds of patients who might otherwise experience an amputation or other life-threatening circumstances.

Yee, who has specialized in wound treatment for 11 years, summed it up by saying the center deals with chronic wounds that haven't healed, wounds that originate from the skin. The wound is considered chronic if it doesn't heal in two to four weeks.

"It doesn't have to be a certain size or shape," Garruto said.

Tampa's Karen Cassels drove to Lakewood Ranch Medical Center once a week for two months after two surgeries for a cyst on her right ankle. She was left, though, with an infection that wouldn't heal.

"I had 18 staples in my ankle from the surgeries and I was told I had a rare infection. I was told I needed to find somebody who knows how to take care of wounds."

She found the Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine and met Yee, who designed a plan and suggested things she needed to do to get better. She had lost functionality in her foot and was reliant on pain medication to manage the infection on a daily basis.

"For the first time, I had hope," she said. "I loved the compassion and care they showed me. They carefully listened to everything I had been through. It was worth the drive."

Yee was asked if he enjoys solving a mystery when it comes to a wound.

"Who wouldn't?" he said. "But I don't think like, 'If everyone fails, I'm going to solve it.' I just want to assist. We are just a piece of the puzzle."

Although he said healthcare definitely is a business, Garruto said the Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine is not trying to steal business from anyone. He said it is a collaborative effort with other health care professionals. After the center meets with patients, if the staff feels they would be better served elsewhere, they would refer them somewhere else.

"We want to give patients their quality of life back," Garruto said. "When you have a wound, you can't do the things you take for granted."

So now that the center has a major award in hand, what's next?

"We just have to keep getting better," Garruto said. "It doesn't stop. We have been working on our scheduling the past four months because we don't want a patient to be waiting in the lobby."

It also is about getting the word out about the center.

"There are people right here who don't know we exist," Garruto said.

Yee made another attempt to answer the question about what the award means.

"It means we are doing the right thing," he said.