Refresh Saturday, August 11, 2018
14
IN THE FIELD
A centered approach to wellness BY SCOTT SCANLON R E F R E SH E DI T OR
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hose who so far have used the new Sisters Metabolic Center for Wellness included a mix of bariatric, cardiac and joint replacement patients. “The vast majority are overweight or obese. That’s the main contributor to most health problems these days,” said Director Kate Giglia, who ran the Catholic Health Bariatric Surgery Program out of Sisters of Charity Hospital on Main Street before moving into her expanded role, and space, two weeks ago on the Sisters – St. Joseph’s Campus, in Cheektowaga. Giglia leads a staff that will grow to 25 in the coming weeks in a $1.8-million, 6,000-square-foot space on the first floor of St. Joe’s. The staff includes physical therapists, exercise physiologists, a cardiac rehab team, speech and occupational therapists and a nurse practitioner. Soon to join the staff: a nutritionist, mental health counselor, diabetes educator, and nurse navigator to help patients get the most benefit from their prescribed wellness programs. The center will largely centralize Catholic Health’s rehabilitation services, including helping patients prepare for and recover from elective surgeries in several specialties. Giglia, 40, grew up in Lockport. She is a registered nurse who joined Catholic Health a little more than 15 years ago, after graduating from the University at Buffalo School of Nursing. She was a floor nurse at Kenmore Mercy before working at both Sisters of Charity hospitals. She and her husband, Joseph, vice president of human resources and general counsel with The Buffalo News, live in Amherst with their two daughters. Obesity can creep into your life over years, Giglia said, and lead to a cluster of conditions that include high blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides. These can cascade into metabolic syndrome, which raises the risk of diabetes, cardiopulmonary disease, stroke and other serious ailments. “One thing I can tell you from being a nurse that your health is everything,” Giglia said. “Nothing will ever make you happy if you can’t enjoy it because you’re not feeling well. As parents, we should also be paying attention to what our kids are doing, especially with their health. If we don’t set them right now, they’re
Shuran Huang/Buffalo News
“This is a place where people can come, be well and have support,” Director Kate Giglia says of the new Sisters Metabolic Center for Wellness on the St. Joseph Campus in Cheektowaga.
going to be very unhealthy people.” Q: Who will the center serve? A: This is a place where people can come, be well and have support, no matter whether they’re trying to lose weight, or recover from an accident, or have had a heart attack, want to feel better and never let that happen again. If you need to lose weight – whether for medical reasons or for surgical intervention – you can have the additional support through nutrition and eventually mental health counseling. If you have an orthopedic issue, say you need to have your knee replaced, this is the place to come for rehab. We also have patients that need therapy for their wounds. Then they can get back on their feet with physical therapy, as well. You must be 18 years old for bariatric surgery but we do see children, depending on their condition, for physical therapy. Q: The average Catholic Health bariatric patient in the program
weighs 300 to 400 pounds. Surgeons performed 381 bariatric procedures last year and hired a third surgeon, so you expect to do more this year. Can you talk more about that part of the center program? A: Bariatric surgery in the Catholic Health System takes place at Sisters, where patients can weigh up to 615 pounds, and St. Joseph’s, which will handle patients up to 425 pounds. It’s based on the availability of equipment for safety, for imaging purposes. The heavier the patient, the higher risk they have for complication... We also have a lot of diabetic patients getting a gastric bypass, which has been shown to help reduce or reverse diabetes. You’ll see a change in glucose levels very quickly after surgery. Patients require quite a bit of pre-operative prep to go through the surgery. A lot of it is nutrition counseling. It’s mental health and behavioral modification, even
exercise therapy. Q: You say most people who are heavier have tried to lose weight? A: Typically, they have tried everything. It’s a very big deal, maybe a last-ditch effort to save their life. You can’t lose weight at 600 pounds the way you or I could lose 10 or 15 pounds. It’s more than diet. Your metabolism has been destroyed. You could try to eat a 1,000-calorie diet and your body thinks it’s starving itself, so it’s going to hang on to all those calories. They really need medical intervention. Q: What is covered by insurance? A: Everything, depending on your plan. There will be copays. Most of the time, they’re pretty reasonable. Most insurance companies are starting to recognize that nutrition therapy and mental health counseling and physical therapy are important. This is preventative medicine with the goal of trying to get healthier. This ultimately will reduce costs.