Faith Regional takes services beyond Norfolk
Editor’s Note
Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a three-day series of stories on Faith Regional Health Service’s plans for the future in the ever-changing world of health care.
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When Demetrio Aguila III was a kid, it was his dream to be president of the United States. Mostly, because he thought a bridge would be named after him, like George Washington. Then he’d be able to charge a toll so he could afford a horse.
That dream faded, and while there were other clever ideas in between, he eventually came to the conclusion that he wanted to be a doctor because of his father.
His father was a medical rehab physician. Even though his father worked late hours, he would always return home with a smile, Aguila said he remembers.
“He complained a lot about the paperwork, but he never complained about taking care of patients, he never complained about the problems the patients had or the diagnostic or therapeutic dilemmas he would face trying to figure out how to best take care of people,” Aguila said. “I remember thinking to myself, especially over the years, it must be very fulfilling what he does.”
That idea stuck.
Today, Aguila is a reconstructive and aesthetic surgeon, as well as an otolaryngologist — someone who specializes in the ear, nose and throat — and has been at Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk for about a year after 22 years serving as a military physician.
And, like his father, he’s found his profession fulfilling.
Aguila has achieved a positive reputation in the health care world for performing what’s known as peripheral nerve surgery, a procedure only about 100 people in the country practice.
“Basically any problem that has to do with the nerves that are not the spinal cord and not the brain could be classified as peripheral nerve surgery,” Aguila said. “Sometimes patients have problems with those nerves being compressed by some of the surrounding tissue and so we decompress those nerves. Other times, there are problems with an abnormal growth within the nerve either due to a previous injury or something else and sometimes we have to remove that to treat the patient’s pain.”
Those are just a few examples of what might be causing nerve issues. And while each case differs, there are two commonalities in patients Aguila treats. One, his patients experience chronic pain, and two, they generally previously have been told that there’s nothing that can be done to help them, he said.
Aguila has dealt with 130 of these cases since he came to Faith Regional. With the exception of two patients, all have received either significant relief from their chronic pain or their pain has been completely alleviated, he said.
This procedure has attracted patients to come to Norfolk for treatment from six different states, including Colorado and Alaska.
That’s exciting for not only Aguila, but also for Faith Regional as a whole because the hospital has worked to become a regional referral center over the last several years. Aguila’s work is the kind that regional referral centers do.
Faith Regional serves 25 counties in Northeast and North Central Nebraska, though its primary service area encompasses nine.
“We continue to reach out to the health care facilities, the medical staff, the community leaders, really working with them and having them identify what their needs are and then really helping us as an organization at Faith Regional put a strategy together to help us, help them meet those needs,” said Mark Klosterman, president and CEO of Faith Regional. “That can be everything from advocacy to clinical outreach, in other words specialty docs going (to outreach clinics). It could be education, it could be nurse training. … It really goes the whole spectrum.”
Private practice physician, John Tubbs, based out of Atkinson with Greater Sandhills Clinic, covers a 100-mile radius. Since his practice consists of himself, three physician assistants and one nurse practitioner, it’s been useful to work with a bigger facility like Faith Regional.
“What people don’t sometimes realize, as a solo practitioner in what some might consider next to nowhere, it’s a very challenging path,” Tubbs said. “In a city or Omaha, when you’ve got someone with a heart issue and you’re not sure what’s going on, you have all those specialists at your fingertips.”
But practicing in a rural area, sometimes can be unnerving, he said.
“You’re doing everything. So to have someone you can get a hold of, transfer a patient, get a question answered, that’s wonderful,” Tubbs said.
Tubbs regularly refers patients to Faith Regional, but said the hospital’s outpatient services are also beneficial.
That’s one of the main things Providence Medical Center in Wayne utilizes, too.
“Providence is very proud that we are a stand-alone facility, but we still need others’ help — and some people need our help, and that only benefits everybody,” said Laura Gamble, director of nursing. “Our patients can stay in Wayne and get care here. They don’t have to drive to Norfolk to see those physicians.”
Keeping care close to home is especially important for elderly patients.
The Bloomfield Medical Clinic treats a large geriatric population, Dr. Riley Eckmann said, which means that even when the clinic needs to refer patients, having Faith Regional close is a huge asset.
“We want to keep care as close to home as possible,” she said. “So, Norfolk is a big appeal because they don’t have to go into Omaha. Most patients, if it’s something they know they need to get taken care of, a little less than an hour drive is not bad.”
Klosterman said these types of relationships are what Faith Regional wants to continue to foster as it grows.
“Where the regional referral center comes in is — because of our size, scope and clinical complexity — it makes a lot of sense that we continue to reach out to keep that care close to home,” he said. “But if at any time care goes beyond what that local facility is able to take care of, we want people to think of Faith Regional, to come here to get the highest quality care and the best patient experience possible.”
It was the care Faith Regional provides and the potential for future growth that attracted Aguila to Norfolk — even with a job waiting for him at the famed Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic.
“I was faced with two options, I could go to the Mayo and ride somebody’s coattails, and they’re big coat tails and there are awesome things to be done there,” he said. “Or I could come here to Nebraska and I could be one of the architects of something awesome. I could mold the future of something that has the potential to be something great.”
But one of the biggest challenges is making Norfolkans realize what’s available to them in their own community.
“It’s been my impression that people have this perception that in order to get top-notch health care you have to go to Omaha, you have to go to Lincoln, you have to go to Des Moines, you have to go to the Mayo,” Aguila said. “That’s the single biggest challenge we face is getting people to understand that you don’t have to go through Norfolk to get your health care — you can come to Norfolk.”
