Patient Care: Creating a new model of health and healing


	Patient Care: Creating a new model of health and healing

	Emory medical faculty are Atlanta’s doctors. Last year, they were responsible for more than 3.6 million patient visits (up 9% over the previous year), which represents a substantial proportion of all health care in the city. Services cover the full spectrum, from fetal to geriatric medicine, from primary and preventive care to the most complex diagnosis and treatment available anywhere.	Close window Print page


	Emory is dedicated to creating a new model of care, one with a patient- and family-focused service culture that maximizes collaboration among researchers and clinicians to speed innovations to prevent and treat disease.


	In addition to making Emory Healthcare the largest and most comprehensive health care system in Georgia (see inside back cover), Emory medical faculty provide the majority of physician care at three affiliated hospitals: (1) Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, recently named the third best children’s hospital in the nation by Child magazine, (2) Grady Memorial Hospital, the city’s 953-bed public hospital, and (3) Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In both Emory’s own and affiliated facilities, Emory physicians head essential programs, including many unavailable elsewhere in the city, state, or region. Examples include the most comprehensive AIDS program in the country, one of the most comprehensive multiple organ and tissue transplant centers in the nation (and one of the few providing islet cell transplants), a cancer institute on track to become the state’s first NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center, the region’s only comprehensive geriatric health system, and the oldest stroke center in the Southeast. Patient-centered care Emory is dedicated to creating a new model of care, one with a patient- and family-focused service culture that maximizes collaboration among researchers and clinicians to speed innovations to prevent and treat disease. This past year, five initial clinical/research areas (transplant, respiratory health, neuroscience, cancer, and heart/vascular care) were targeted to exemplify what patient-centered care should be. In addition to new discoveries, these centers are expected to set new standards for patient safety and quality and will also drive new standards in use of electronic medical records, continuous feedback programs to provide real-time data on needed system improvements, and technology that allows on-demand sharing of such information among caregivers, researchers, students, patients, and families. Key faculty have been recruited in the past year in several of these centers, including transplant, neuroscience, and cancer, and a vice president for clinical and academic integration was named to lead the entire initiative for patient- centered care. Neuro ICU An illustration of the patient-centered model in action can be seen in Emory University Hospital’s new neuro intensive care unit, where clinical care is led by neuro-intensivists, a relatively new breed of MDs who specialize in treating critically ill patients with brain injuries, and where nurses assume larger responsibilities than in the past. The center’s space was designed based on what evidence has shown to be most beneficial to the patient—consolidating equipment to eliminate the need for moving patients long distances for procedures and accommodating family members who want to remain with their loved ones around the clock.

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