Specialty hospitals are hospitals that focus on a few body systems compared to a general hospital that has the ability to treat all systems and maladies of the body. When the modern hospital was first created in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins by Dr. William Osler in the early 1900’s our knowledge of the human body and its complexity was naive at best. There were only a few operations that surgeons (Dr. William Halstead) could perform and medical treatment was limited. Over the past 100 years the explosion of research and information about the human body has led medicine to become more and more sub-specialized. In today’s medical world one doctor cannot treat every problem that the human body encounters effectively. For example, I am a spine surgeon. I know the spine, its anatomy, its pathology, and how to treat it surgically and non-surgically. I have completed specialized training (residency then fellowship) in orthropedics and spine surgery to become a specialist in spine surgery. If you have a heart murmur I am not the doctor to come see. You need a cardiologist who knows more about the heart than I ever will.
Specialty hospitals have the same mission as specialists. Opened in February of 2010, Baylor Orthopedic and Spine Hospital at Arlington is a hospital dedicated to the treatment of all orthopedic and spine related disorders which can be treated surgically. It has six operating room suites, 24 beds, MRI scanner, CT scanner, a full cafeteria, laboratory, and an in-house physical therapy department, all with the focus on orthopedic and spine patients. All of the staff at this hospital from the operating room, to the nurses, to the physical therapists, to the cafeteria, etc. are all trained to provide the best orthopedic and spine care that is available today. Everyone has their job and they know it completely and the entire goal is focused on you, the patient, and your recovery from an orthopedic or spine related procedure.
Baylor Orthopedic and Spine Hospital at Arlington has won several prestigious awards. It has received the Joint Commission Seal of approval of excellence for its spinal surgery program along with its total joint replacement program. The Joint Commission is an independently run organization which comes into a hospital and evaluates every aspect of the care of the patient s from the operating room to the physical therapists and nursing staff. Baylor Orthopedic and Spine Hospital at Arlington is one of only two spine hospitals in the State of Texas to receive this prestigious approval from the Joint Commission.- Dr. Eric Wieser, MD
