I want to share a few thoughts with you, why picking me or a surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery is the right choice for you:
1. Training
Our surgeons are the best trained professionals in their field. You cannot just apply for a job at Hospital for Special Surgery, it is offered to you if you show exceptional expertise in your field. I first came to Hospital for Special Surgery to work under Dr. Thomas Sculco in 1999 and for one year in 2000/2001. Tom Sculco left a lasting impression on me and his surgical skill as well as his ability to connect to his patients has always been a role model for me. Back in Germany, I finished my 6 years of residency training in Orthopedic Surgery and by the summer of 2004 returned to Hospital for Special Surgery for special training in joint replacement surgery. After this 12-month training program I pursued another fellowship in sports medicine (2005/2006) and hip surgery (2006) at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic. All together I had 9 years of training in orthopedics, considering that a residency is only 5 years, maybe a little much, but in retrospect, I feel that training with the best surgeons in the world has given me the tools and knowledge that make me the surgeon I am today. I will always be grateful to my teachers.
2. Caring
I genuinely care for the wellbeing of my patients. I feel that in order to achieve exceptional results you have to be able to connect with your patient and motivate them to become your partner in working on achieving a great result. You will be surprised but I might spend as much time with you talking about your hobby or family as I do on your hip or knee problem. I can only guide you through this time and pick the right treatment for you if I get to know you as a human being, not just as a patient. Usually a patient will not know how deeply embedded their surgeon is to their care, until something does not work out as planned. My team has always gone the extra mile to help patients that have a problem. No matter how good you are, your patients can have a complications. It is how you deal with it, that makes the difference to your patients' long term outcome. I always say: "Don't only pick a surgeon you like based on the outcome or type of procedure you desire, also pick one, that you know will be there should something not work out the way you have hoped for."
3. Experience
At Hospital for Special Surgery I don't just benefit from what I do, I continue to gain from the experience of all our surgeons on the service. We discuss patients, we review complications and debate new treatment options. This allows us at Special Surgery to always stay up to date and to continuously challenge what we do. There is a reason why we are the thought leader on almost every new development in orthopedics. In addition, we benefit from the tremendous volume operated at HSS. There is no other place in the world that performs over 12'000 total knee and hip replacements. As a surgeon I gain from operating a lot. I see rare problems more often, recognize patterns and develop skills I would not have if I operated less.
4. Research
Research is the foundation of progress. If you don't study what you do, you cannot progress; it becomes impossible to choose what to change and where not to follow new trends. If you look through the papers I published in recent years (click here ) you will soon realize what a tremendous impact my research has on how we treat patients every day. You find papers on novel surgical techniques for valgus (knocked) knees or innovation on how to reproducibly position the acetabular component in primary hip replacement. We have made tremendous progress over the last 15 years, but only a fool would think that we do everything perfectly today.
5. Top Hospital - Top Team
Surgery is a team effort. Your experience is as much influenced by the person admitting you before the surgery, the nurse that comforts you on your way to the operating room and the service personal that serves your food as by your surgeon's expertise. To perform at the highest level takes a team effort. I can only do what I do because of the people that work with me in my office and in the operating room. Their dedication to excellence and focus on details is as crucial as my own. In addition, at Hospital for Special Surgery, the care I provide is only determined by what I think is best for my patients. This is unique, almost any other institution will force you to pick a treatment based on cost or institutional preference. At HSS I am free to pick the implant and medication I feel are most beneficial for my patients.
It is not surprising that the Hospital for Special Surgery is continuously ranked as #1 in Orthopedics. Click here.
HSS is also considered one of the top 100 Hospitals in the US by Becker's Healthcare. Click here.
6. Top Nurses
HSS is continuously recognized for nursing excellence by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (2002, 2007, 2011, 2016). It's the excellence of our nurses that has laid the foundation to the 7 years in a row winning of the Guardian of Excellence Award® for delivering outstanding service for inpatients (2013-2019). HSS was also awarded for the first time the 2019 Pinnacle of Excellence Award. If you spend time overnight or in the postoperative recovery room, you will be impressed: Our nurses take care of you as if you are a family member!
Thank you for entrusting us with your care.
