A Clear Mission WVU Healthcare, the hospital and clinic operations in and around Morgantown associated with West Virginia University, was formed in 2010 by WVU Hospitals, University Health Associates, and the School of Medicine. WVU Healthcare’s mission is to improve the health of West Virginians and all we serve through excellence in patient care, research and education. Over the summer, WVU Healthcare adopted a new strategic plan to guide its Rosen, who performs the neurosurgical portion of the procedures, said all the team members are good surgeons and nice people. “There are no egos,” he said. “I look forward to working on these cases together. It’s very rewarding.” In 2010, WVU’s Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship Program became one of the first five programs in the country to earn approval from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. ‘There
was nothing I could do to change it’ For Flink, the team planned to reconstruct the bones that would be taken out of her face by shaping a flat sheet of titanium.
“We made cuts and bends in the operating room until we were satisfied that her reconstruction would be as symmetric and anatomic as possible,” Sivak said. “We essentially made a sculpture of the area that needed to be reconstructed out of this mesh.” Rosen said the process is sort of an art form. “The art is getting the patient to
growth in the next five years. The plan calls for a patient-centered system of
look like he or she never had surgery. It’s related to patient healing. If you exactly recreate the original contours of the resected tissue, atrophy and scar tissue will make some areas look bad. You need to guess a little at how the patient will heal and how the reconstruction will look,” he said. “We hide scars behind hairlines and account for healing. It’s one of the many tricks we use.” Flink remained confident. “I realized there was nothing I could do to change it. I had a lot of support from my family and the people I worked with at the time,” she said. “And I was very fortunate to have an excellent team at WVU taking care of me.” Today, Flink is recurrence free. “She’s doing wonderfully,” Rosen said. “She has a very full life.” “I can see, I can function and I can read,” she said. “I’m very thankful.”
care that includes: • An expanded regional healthcare delivery system. • Consistent, integrated patient care recognized for delivering the right care in the right place at the right time at all sites. • Development of new approaches to improve healthcare, including team-based models of care; expanding WVU clinical and translational research. • Educational programs throughout the network recognized for training uniquely qualified healthcare team members and leaders. • A culture of performance and excellence throughout the network. The plan will require a sharp increase in the number of faculty physicians She’s retired from the school, but her former coworkers have been incredibly supportive in addition to her family members. “I’m very fortunate to have my friends and family,” she said.
and other healthcare providers, and a multimillion-dollar investment in new hospital and outpatient facilities.
From the nurses in the various units to all the doctors who have treated her along the way, Flink just can’t say enough about the care she received at WVU. “I think the world of them.” For more details on the WVU Healthcare Strategic Plan, and other plans being developed around the Health Sciences Center, please visit http://www.hsc.wvu. edu/HSC2020/.
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