Surgical Services

Hills & Dales Healthcare's Medical/Surgical Unit is committed to providing you with the highest quality clinical care while providing care that is respectful of and responsive to your preferences, cultural traditions, needs, and values. Our professional, multidisciplinary team works closely with you ensuring that these values guide all clinical decisions. We firmly believe that this leads to healthier outcomes for our patients, and wholeheartedly support the active involvement of patients and their families in their care.

Communication is an important component of the quality of care that we provide. Our patients receive daily visits from the physician and registered nurse. We have a hospitalist nurse practitioner available in-house Monday through Friday and occasionally on weekends. We are committed to listening to our patient's needs and are happy to answer any questions you may have. During your stay, we will discuss your test results, treatment options, and goals. Patients are visited by a pharmacist to ensure an understanding of the medication(s) being prescribed.

We provide services for our surgical patients that require post operative care. Medical patients may include those with acute respiratory symptoms, cardiac, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, musculoskeletal, neurological disorders, and pediatrics. The members of the healthcare team include physicians, nurses, respiratory care practitioners, physical therapists, dietician, pharmacists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and social workers.

We take the utmost pride in what we do – healing and caring for our community and friends – with compassion.

Surgery is a major event in anyone’s life. That’s why we go the extra mile to make sure our patients feel at ease. From discussing the details of your surgery in familiar terms to helping answer any questions, our skilled and caring staff will be with you every step of the way.

No need to travel a long distance, we offer surgical procedures right here in Hills & Dales, including:

General Surgery

Orthopedic Surgery

Ear, Nose, Throat

Pain Management

Urology

Ophthalmology

Why Should You Consider Having Your Surgery at Hills & Dales?

A University of Michigan-led team carried out an analysis of data from 1.6 million hospital stays for four common operations: gallbladder removal, colon surgery, hernia repair and appendectomy. They compared what happened to patients covered by Medicare who had their operations at 828 critical access hospitals with data from patients treated at more than 3,600 larger hospitals.

The analysis yielded several surprises:

The risk of dying within 30 days of the operation was the same whether a patient had surgery at a critical access hospital or a larger hospital.

The risk of suffering a major complication after surgery, such as a heart attack, pneumonia or kidney damage, was lower at critical access hospitals.

Patients who had their operation at a critical access hospital cost the Medicare system nearly $1,400 less than patients who had the same operation at a larger hospital, after differences in patient risk and pricing were accounted for.

The patients who had these operations at critical access hospitals were healthier to begin with than patients treated elsewhere, suggesting that critical access hospital surgeons are appropriately selecting surgical patients who can do well in a small rural setting, and triaging more complex patients to larger centers.

But even after the researchers corrected for differences in pre-operation health, the critical access hospitals still had equal or better outcomes.

Fewer than 5 percent of surgery patients at critical access hospitals were transferred to larger hospitals, compared with more than a quarter of patients treated for nonsurgical issues, according to other studies.

Critical access hospital surgery patients were less likely to use skilled nursing facilities after their operations.

Source