LEARNING
HEALING
CARING
The Swadesh Khurana Healing Garden (shown above) reflects one family’s efforts to bring world-class stroke care to Houston’s Willowbrook area. In 2007, Swadesh Khurana – a mental health professional and family matriarch – suffered a fatal stroke at her northwest Houston home. She was rushed to the Texas Medical Center, but by the time she reached the operating room, it was too late. Thanks in part to an endowment from the Khurana family, Methodist Willowbrook Hospital is now certified as a Primary Stroke Center, offering advanced care for stroke victims. The endowment supports a fellowship to be awarded annually to an internal applicant based on his or her unique plan to advance stroke care.
Supported by a generous gift from ConocoPhillips, the Methodist Care Navigator program is designed to assist patients and their doctors and nurses with coordinating their plans of care, to ensure that patients are receiving the right care in the right setting at the right time. Care Navigator nurses maintain detailed documentation of each encounter with a patient, and of any interventions and referrals provided to the patient. The program is designed to make health care more efficient and effective and to reduce overall costs. It is especially valuable for those with major illnesses, such as cancer or diabetes, where navigating the health care system can be confusing for patients and their families.
Dyer Fellowships, made possible through the support of the Constance M. and Byron F. Dyer Endowment Fund, were awarded to two outstanding recipients in 2012: Dr. Sherilyn Gordon Burroughs, Department of Surgery, and Dr. Basel Ramlawi, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery. Gordon Burroughs will use her fellowship to develop an intestinal transplant program at Methodist, a novel procedure for patients with intestinal failure who develop life-threatening complications from receiving nutrition through a catheter or needle. Ramlawi will use the fellowship to travel to Italy to observe percutaneous mitral (MitraClip) procedures. This experience is part of a larger effort to develop a strong program in transcatheter mitral repair interventions at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, and to position Methodist as a national leader in catheter-based valve repair.
MethodistHealth.com/Foundation
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