Latest / Here to Serve - A United Regional Podcast / The Cath Lab Guys Episode
Transcript
- United Regional: Welcome to Here to Serve, a United Regional podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Graves. My favorite part of being the Director of Patient Experience at United Regional is the incredible people that I meet and work with on a daily basis. And I want you to meet them too. Join us to meet the people behind the badge and to highlight those who are here to serve. Welcome to the Here to Serve podcast, guys. We're glad to have you today. ⁓ We're calling this the Cath Lab Guys episode. So I don't know if you know this or not, but over the last few weeks, whenever I was getting ready for this, people say, hey, who's coming up next on the podcast? And I'll go, well, I got the Cath Lab guys scheduled. And everybody immediately knows when I say the Cath Lab guys, they're like, I know you're talking about. I'm kind of the Cath Lab guys. I'm thinking we need a t-shirt. calendar. calendar's even better. Yes. Yeah, I'm picturing y'all's faces on a like Mount Rushmore type situation. A t-shirt the cath lab guys. Heck yeah. But I mean we don't want to leave anybody out so we definitely there's a lot more folks in the cath lab so I think we need a cath lab gals. Just the lisas just flexing on the front of the... They did want us to give them a shout out. Yeah, absolutely. while we're down here. Yeah, they're working. We'll definitely have... future episodes have them in. real quick, let's go around and ⁓ for anybody that doesn't know you in the organization, let's start with you, Keith, and introduce yourself and tell us what you do at United Region. All right. My name is Keith Anderle and I'm a registered nurse in the cardiac department. Been there for, I guess, 25 years now and at the hospital going on 27. My goodness. So Cath Lab, EP Lab. Who's been there the longest of the group? Me. Yeah, at the hospital, him. Cath Lab, probably. I can just move on to his introduction. Larry Dwyer. So, been at the hospital since 89. Started as a uniclerk, respiratory therapist, then cath lab. So probably about, I would say, 30 years in the cath lab, the remainder of respiratory therapy slash uniclerking. So you started as a uniclerk? Got out of the Air Force with experience but no license. Okay. Started as a uniclerk on 5 West Telemetry back then. when all the boxes were on the wall versus Bluetooth or wireless. And had opportunities. It was great. I was on job training and challenged licensures and went to school correspondence and it was great. And look at you now. Look at me now. Look at you now. Old. That's awesome. How about you sir? Chris Clark. I've been at the hospital coming up on 29 years. Been in the cath lab 26 going on 27 years. Kind of like Larry everyone else I started as an LVN. Bethania Knights and then became an RN. I worked both general, Bethania, and then switched over to Catholic. been there ever since. So, fair serve. I love it. I love it. How about you? Well, I'm Zach McGuire. I've actually been in healthcare since about 2010. Healthcare was actually not my first route. I actually went to college and got a bachelor's degree in marketing. Really? Yeah. so I actually moved to ⁓ San Angelo and I tried to get into marketing there and they wouldn't hire me. I didn't have any experience. So kind of like Larry's story, I started off as a front desk clerk in the radiology department and kind of moved my way around through the ⁓ radiology department, Shannon. I was a CT MRI assistant basically. I just got the patients ready so they could scan. ⁓ And then I wanted, I was really enjoying the healthcare field, so I wanted more. I started going, actually I moved to ⁓ PCA in the ER. I did that for about two years and fell in love with medicine and taking care of people, the emergency room. ⁓ But I didn't have a degree. So I went back to... ⁓ x-ray school here at Midwestern and got my radiology degree and right out of school I started working nuclear medicine. I did CT and then in about 2017 I moved up to the cath lab and have been there since. So I'm hearing a repetitive theme as most people once they get into the cath lab that they that's where they want to be. I don't know about these guys but I remember being a PCA in the ER and I would see the cath lab team walk in to take care of the MI. And I was like, before I even got to school, I said, that's exactly what I want to do. Well, let's be honest, the cath lab is the cool kids. It's you guys. I feel cool just being here with you guys right now. Only problem is I don't have anything on my head. I feel like I would be I got an extra one do you want it? a cooler if I did, man. Oh, yeah, we got one. I need an honorary. Yes. Now you have to tell me how to put it on. I'm going to look silly with it. I need an honorary cath lab. Now you guys all fold yours up is that like a green beret kind of deal that you have to do yeah, it stays on your head better It kind of acts as a sweatband too. His is custom. Yeah, I did a nut. Okay. I'm trying to I'm trying to flex as I do It's like a little bit of a Rambo situation I am These the guys that do the filming force are incredible, but I only asked them for one thing I was like I want everybody on here to look jacked and tamed So far they've not come through on that, but maybe today's the day. That's it. All right. Is it on right? look great, dude. Okay. I know I'm not actually in the special forces but kind of feel like Well, I think it's really a testament not only the the amount of experience and longevity that you guys bring to the table Is a pretty pretty impressive ⁓ And I mean, if as a patient, I'm going to end up in your area, I want some experience and some people that are there have done it for a long time that know what they're doing, that care about it. So really, really impressive. So let me ask you this. I want to get into some maybe some serious stuff, but first I want to hear I love I'm a nurse by trade. Started as PCA, by the way. So some similar journeys, although I didn't go into the special forces at the end of it. I was like, I want to be cool like those guys one day. And then I went in the opposite direction. But I want to ask you this. I love health care stories. What's the coolest, if one pops into your head, like a really cool story that was exciting or that you were super proud of that's happened in the cath lab that comes to mind? Anybody have any of those? I didn't warn you about this. I'm totally put. You didn't want about anything. Yes. That's how podcasts roll. There's the proud moments and there's the humorous moments and sometimes the one in the same. But real quick though, follow up with Zach. You know, when I was ⁓ nursing on the floor, it was the same thing when the cath lab came to the floor to, you know, back then to remove arterial sheets and hold pressure, or if I'm getting report, you know, from what they just did, I had no clue. I was really very ignorant of what they did. but I knew it was something very important. And so when the opportunity came up, there was a position, I knew Larry and Chris, so that's how I ended up in the cath lab. But I can tell you that right before I did, one of the nurses, the female nurses from the cath lab was bringing a patient back. So this is the story you're asking for. Okay, I'm excited. And this lady, I was charge nurse that day on a particular floor in the hospital, and this patient of mine, we had got to know each other. a couple hours before she went for a procedure. So back then we'd move the patient from, they would be on a gurney and then they'd come back to our floor and they would scoot over in the bed. So I looked at this woman, I was on the other side of the bed ready to receive her and one of our female nurses was on the other side giving her direction, you need to move over their slide but don't move your right leg. And I looked her right in the eye and I said, ma'am, said, I need a... I need you to move your big hips over into this bed. I about died. What I meant to say is I need a big move with your hips over into this bed. So that was not a proud moment. The right word is the wrong order. Thank goodness she was a lovely woman. She bust out loud. I so embarrassed, but I know, I'll tell you, it was Rhonda from the Catholic. She's never forgotten that We still joke around and talk about that. And they still hired me into that. They still let you in. Yeah, they still let me in. You know, you said something, you was like, don't even know what those guys do, but I know it's important. I, ⁓ man, I've been in the cath lab a few times, not as a patient, thankfully. I've had family come through, but just observing and sometimes I'm doing shadowing and coaching and those sorts of things. And man, every time I go into the cath lab and it sometimes it's years apart and I forget, but I'll go in there and every time I walk out going, this is so stinking cool. Like it is just the stuff you guys are doing is so cutting edge. I mean, you're literally in there. like messing with people's hearts, you know, ⁓ in real time. You take it serious, for sure. It's a big deal, right? matters. It's life or death. It's life or death. But you got guys like Chris who are the entertainment to the patients. They come in, they're petrified. And by the end of the day, they're all singing songs in the room. And the patients leave with, you know, they came in extremely scared and leave probably the best memory of, you know, Chris hanging from a pole on the wall to, you know, singing a song and running down the hall with them and they love it, you know. When you look from the outside in, you don't appreciate that. If you're the patient, it's a different world. You appreciate it much better. But still, it's a serious job. There's downtimes, and during our downtimes, we have just as much fun. Keith is petrified of rats. And we had our moments of scaring him to death. Scaring him to death. And Zack's spiders are just going to writing things down. Terrible. We have our good times, but we take our jobs serious. It's very clear why. ⁓ And it is just one of those jobs and all, you I had this thing where I joke around, people like, how's your day going? I'm like saving lives, you know, and as an organization, we are right as an organization. But with you guys, what you're doing is literally like people come in and if they don't make it to you in time, they're not going to walk out of this place. Like it's that serious. And if you don't do your job right, they're not going to walk out. But how I mean, I've got to think I've never actually been in your shoes. I gotta think it's pretty satisfying to know, this person's alive today, because we did our job well. We were on top of it, we've trained, we've drilled, we've put the time in, and then this person hit the front. What's our time now, like door to balloon time? I think 62 minutes is our average. And under 90 is the goal. So pretty good. I mean, that's incredible. So you're doing this serious job that is... And my thinking about this is like, man, this could be such a heavy job that it would burn you out. And you're like, this is too much stress. I can't handle it. I don't want to do this. You guys have created a culture up there where people have been doing it for a long, long time and keep doing it. ⁓ I want to ask you about what do you think's created that culture? Before I do, just want to tell my own cath lab story real quick, because ⁓ it was one of my favorite things I've seen at United Regional over the years. So I was doing shadowing. Oh, I had to been, that was probably six months or a year ago. I was with a provider who had asked me to shadow and give them some help throughout the day. And so I was just watching and I was, what do you guys call the room that you watch from? What's that? The control room. Control room. Okay. So I'm in the control room. And for anybody that's never been in the cath lab, it's like a viewing gallery kind of deal. It's a big glass wall and you can see the patient. And so there's some staff looking at monitors inside the control room. And then there's the provider and staff in with the actual patient doing the procedures. And so I'm just sitting back in there watching, taking notes, you learning. And this particular case ended up being a little bit complex where the provider actually stopped and said, hey, we're kind of at a crossroads here of what are we going to do? Are we going to go ahead and treat this patient? Are we going to need to ship this patient elsewhere? This is kind of a, this is a delicate situation. And what happened next blew me away. The provider comes back into the viewing room and he calls everybody, the whole team, he calls them all in there. ⁓ he leaves, there's one person, I believe it was Jacob, if I'm not mistaken, stayed with the patient visiting with him. The patient's awake and talking and they're, they're just chit chatting and he's putting the patient at ease and everybody comes back around and the provider says, here's where we're at. Here's what I think here's problem. You know, option a option B. ⁓ I want to hear it. I'll never forget his words. He said, I want to hear what the hive mind thinks. And then he went around and every single person on that team that was in that room gave their opinion, gave their pros and cons of what they thought we should do. ⁓ and then when everybody agreed. He said, got it, let's do it. And then he kept the patient, took care of what needed to be taken care of, had a good outcome. Not only was that so cool, in the background I'm listening and I heard Jacob tell the patient, hey, everything's okay. The provider is talking with the whole team because all of us is smarter than any one of us. And I heard him say that to the patient and like the director of patient experience in me, like wanted to cry or clap. I mean, I was so pumped about hearing, I'm like, this is the culture, this is it. ⁓ It was so cool to me. I was so proud in that moment and then and then you guys went and did the the things that need to be done and took care of the patient patient a great outcome I'll never forget that and to me that was like the epitome of a team a lack of ego Trust culture like that's what you want. So you guys talked to me Maybe I was just all that one time and you I just saw you on your best day, you know, I don't know maybe ⁓ Talk to me about what you've done to create that culture and how you sustain that well With me being the person that has not been in the lab the longest, ⁓ I can tell you having the amount of experience and knowledge that our lab has compared to a lot of other labs because I've gone and I've seen different labs and ⁓ the amount of experience and knowledge that is here at United Regional, I wouldn't be where I am without having these guys constantly instilling knowledge on me. it elevated my game so much quicker to be able to talk to the doctor like that and give an input that a lot of facilities, they don't have the staff that we have the amount of knowledge and skill that they can't instill that on the new people. So having 60, 70 years of knowledge just right here amongst three of the four people, you can't get that anywhere else. And so just having that as somebody coming up and we have people that have what, two, three years now in there, they're getting the same thing, and you can see that they're growing at an exponential rate that a lot of places don't get. I think you feel almost committed in the sense that your family, and Zach's just right there in fantastic, fantastic tech, and will exceed anything that probably all three of us have done, but it's the commitment that... We're family, we've watched each other's kids grow up, we've been through the good times, the bad times. We've seen our own family come into the cath lab. My own dad was there on Saturday, I was not on call. I fully, fully trusted what was going on back there. And so, and that's for many of us, I'd say almost a quarter of our parents have been through that lab. So if we're not at the top of our game and the very best for our own families that are gonna be coming in, that's why in healthcare, and I'm a terrible person with change. I used to be. None of us like change. I think we all get very comfortable. But this is the wrong profession to be in if you're not used to change because without change there's no growth. so I think that we feel that commitment. feel that. And it's being proud of what we've built but it doesn't ⁓ make what you do, by the way, because you keep talking about the Cathay Boys any less important. mean, you guys, we need everybody. We need the whole hospital to be successful. so we do know that. before you can clock in, three of us have to clock out just to meet your caliber of what this guy brings to the metal. the efficiency. It's impressive. Well, hey, now that I've put this on, I'm going to be unstoppable. I'm going tell you right now, I already feel like I feel the, it's unstoppable. Well, something you said and it's come up, it's interesting. I've started to kind of catch themes across these podcasts. I don't know how many episodes we're on now, but one of the themes that comes up is this is personal for us. This is where my mom comes. This is where my dad comes. You know, this is my, I got to meet your dad, by the way, not too long ago. He's speaking your praises, Oh, he's clearly proud of you. Immediately told me who he was and who his son He pulled that card out. Glad to have this on film. Yeah, he's very proud of you. We'll have to talk more about, yeah, maybe he'll be one of our tens of viewers. We're gonna push it to the thousands. Yes, that's right. I love it. So anybody else have any thoughts on that before I move on from that topic? That's good. No. All right, well, you guys have truly built something special. And so kudos to you for when I say you guys, I'm talking about the collective cath. I know it's more than teams a lot bigger than just just the cath lab guys. And so super, super proud of what you guys and I'm just proud when people say like, hey, what's you not a regional exceptional at? You know, one of the first things that pops in my mind is, you know, cardiac care. Like, what are we exceptional? What makes us that I'm like cardiac care? I'll even go like, hey, name a cardiac certification. And they start to name it. I'm like, got it. You know, what's the cardiac award got that one too? Like it's cool to see man makes me super proud. So let me ask a couple more questions of you guys. What's the best part of your job? Like what's the part that you just like get you excited? I mean, we just shared an experience with senior leadership, share that with the board meeting or the board room, whatever. We were able to talk about a patient that we just treated a couple of weeks ago. The patient had been going to Dallas. for their treatment for the past seven to 10 years. Had an electrophysiologist taking care of her. We know the staff and the doctor and a bunch of the people that are involved in her care. And just through the years she's treated with medication, cardioversions, and actually had an ablation several weeks before she presented to our ER. She came in through our ER and ⁓ needed an electrophysiologist here in town, so Dr. Kumar got involved. She fell in love with Dr. Kumar and was like, you know, why can't I get my care here? I've been going to Dallas for all these years. I really trust you, I like you. What can you do for me? And he suggested going in and doing another ablation, even though she had had one just a couple weeks before. So she'd been dealing with arrhythmia for years and years and years. was life-limiting. We were able to get her in there. We found her arrhythmia, treated it, and immediately after she woke up from general anesthesia, she started crying. She knew immediately that we had fixed that problem. And she had been... seven to 10 years dealing with the same problem. And the ablations they had done on her in the past were for different arrhythmias, but the one that was causing her problem was the one we found. ⁓ So that instant gratification, you know, and the patient was just crying and overwhelmed, that's kind of what, you know, gets us every day coming to work. Hope we can fix some more and make more stories like that. That's incredible. So we got to share that this month with, like I said, senior leadership, you know, it's Heart Month. We shared that story. thousands of them like that, but that was pretty cool. So she's gonna, hopefully she'll end up on a podcast or something soon. That'd be cool. Yeah. love that. Corey mentioned to us that he's gonna try to reach out and see she'll tell her story. That would be awesome. One of my favorite, it's very similar to his, but we treated a young lady ⁓ who her husband actually started CPR on her at her house, got her to the ER. We brought her up ⁓ and we were able to ⁓ put an impella, which is a heart device that helps take the workload off the heart. And it's a long story, but it kind of comes full circle. We were able to save her. She walked out of here and we had a dinner at Pelican. We were doing educational dinner and the young lady walked in and had dinner with us. was, yeah. was unbelievable. know, Dr. Thoda was there. He was actual implanting physician. took great care of her. The staff was amazing that night. It was one of the ones where we had called in in the middle of the night. And then just to see her and her sister have dinner with us, and we talked to her about what we did and what we went through, and then kind of just hearing what she did after leaving the hospital. was unbelievable. That's awesome. Very rewarding. Yeah, I can imagine. It'd be very rewarding. Well, sometimes... There's some work you do that you never really know the outcome. don't see the, you know, you have no idea, right? If you've made a difference. So you guys for being able to see some of these full circles. Yeah. I know that doesn't always happen, but when you can see it, wow, what a, and this, the story you told, I know that something Corey has talked about a lot that, that Corey has been very passionate about getting rid of that narrative that you have to leave Wichita Falls to go get world-class care. ⁓ And I'm, mean, I see that I'm starting to see that and hear that more and more. I've had so many patients write us. leave comments, send me letters, all that kind of stuff that say we were traveling through here and we thought we were going to end up at this, you know, small town hospital. And now we come back here for our care. Like people fly. They literally fly from other places to come get their care here. ⁓ And that's a great example. think it's behind me. There we go. The destination for world class care. People would come here. So that's that's awesome. And so we have reps. They sell their products, you know, and we're two hours north and south of major cities. And those major cities have a lot of hospitals. Sure. Not as much experience in the cath lab for sure, but they can rely on each other. They can rely on the reps being close by. We're two hours out. Our staff has to be crazy trained to do the things that down there they rely on the reps, the experts to do. So that's a huge plus for us. And the staff is phenomenal at that. We know what to do often better than the reps know how to do it. Cause we're exposed to the cases up here. So that's something you can't find in big cities, you know? It's incredible, man. Well, it shows. Yeah, and to really build on him too, like the innovation part of our mission, know, things have changed drastically over their course of career. And even just in the nine years that I've been in the Catflap, things have changed. And it's for the better. You know, the amount of tools and the stents and all of the heart devices and just all of the tools we're getting to see, it's all innovation. This is something that the big cities offer that we are able to offer here too. sometimes don't offer because they can't afford it. Right. I mean, you know, we're fortunate. Yeah. You know, so what's what's one of the new, new, cool, like slick technologies that you guys are doing now that I mean, when I say new, didn't have to be like new from last week, but something that's changed in the last maybe few years. That's I mean, I don't know about the EP side, which they have really great technology. We have balloons that you can put inside the coronaries. even the leg arteries, and at a very low pressure, we can admit shock waves that actually break up calcium to make that artery more compliable to when we do put the stents in. It actually creates a bigger lumen that blood will flow through. ⁓ We've got now a balloon that actually has a drug on it that in certain scenarios, and there's studies that are being performed that... you can actually use that balloon and not maybe have to leave a stent behind. Now there's obviously trials that are ⁓ trying to prove that, but we do, we have that technology now here at United Regional that that just started in the United States, you know, within the last year. And we have that to offer our patients. And we have that new hybrid room, so it's a cross between surgery and cath lab. And we do, you know, the tavers, the aortic valve. Repairs and replacement for somebody that's never even heard of tower doesn't know what it is So versus having you cut open, you know, I mean your neck down to your belly button pretty much and stopping your heart and replacing this valve a pretty important valve a door if you would between two chambers or the Left ventricle and the aorta we could do that percutaneously sticking a needle in your groin and going up and actually Replacing that valve with another valve. So instead of open our surgery we can Yep, and you go home the next day versus you have this huge incision Maybe two or three days in ICU two three days on the floor. Infection risk. Everything's terrible. Yeah, everything is and it's it's Game-changing. I mean we do it with in conjunction with surgery. So it's a team approach hybrid approach We do a lot of that up there now in the cath lab But that we've done a hundred and ten ish of those which doesn't sound like a lot It's a lot. I mean, that's 110 souls right there man life change and they would not they were not eligible for surgery So they're miserable the rest of their, you short lives, right? and now we've, know, and they're back playing in the yard with their kids, you know, it's a different thing. EP has, know. I think what's amazing all these and Larry probably knows closer off the top of his head how many different new procedures that we're doing now versus two years ago. Like how many of we are we able to do now in the last two years that we previously had not. ⁓ And some of these are not just, you know, old procedures that other places have been doing for five years and now Wichita Falls is just now catching up. Some of those have been other places and offered sooner, but some of these are newer type procedures that the world, know, that medicine is offering. And so for Wichita Falls, we'll able to bring that innovation like Zach's saying, ⁓ you know, here to Wichita Falls so they don't, I think what's been surprising is that you build this program, the TAVRs, these different acronyms we use for these procedures, the ablations that we do, and you worry about is there enough... sick people, are there enough people that we're gonna be able to do this for? They don't run out. These people are here, they're in our community, they need this treatment, they need this fix. And so, where were they going? They weren't probably sitting at home, they were going somewhere else to be treated. So now we're able to keep these folks here. We're talking hundreds, thousands of people now that we're able to keep home. And we offer the service lines they offer without the traffic. Because the traffic is horrible too, you know? That's exactly right. When I first started, we had balloons and pacemakers. That was it. And that's all the world had, pretty much. Yeah. Or you were at the surgery. Now, yeah. Now, I mean, it's unbelievable. It's unreal. things, the balloons. Pre-stints is what Yeah, pre-stints. pre-stints. Crazy that is, but it's, and it's medicines that change the world for sure as well. And we have Rathgeber. The people that aren't in town, you gotta go down with your family. McDonald's House, if you're lucky, a cheap hotel. Now we can put them up right there. right? You it right. I think so. He looked at me like I He's a Yankee. He's still gonna get old and get around 30 years later. Well, man, I could seriously sit and talk to you guys the rest of the day. Before we wrap up, anything I haven't asked you guys that you wanted to talk about, anything you want folks to know about the cath lab or cardiac care in general, this is your chance. The whole world's listening. Wow. Yeah, that's pressure. It's a great place to work for lots of reasons. And probably the most rewarding is you save someone's life. You know, not everyone can say that, you know, so that's that's I say it metaphorically I'm like I say we save lives and you guys like no, actually actually Today for you know, it's no big deal. I'm no hero, but I for life today and we don't think of us a heroes I mean, that's our job, you know, we take it serious and and we do we enjoy our job but you not everyone lives if you know those Days are, that's the hardest. I was gonna ask you guys about the hardest part, we ran out time, but I would assume that's the answer. That is the hardest part. Not everybody has the outcome that we want. It kinda sounds cliche, but you do have to remember that everybody you take care of is somebody's dad, the brother, the mom, their sister. And if you really not tell people, I we're gonna take care of you today like your family. And not a dysfunctional family, I always follow up with that. And they laugh, but if you truly. care for that person that way, it does change how you care for that person. I mean, if you view that person that way. A common theme that I keep hearing in some of my daily reflections recently is your availability versus your ability. And you need the ability, you need the growth that we talked about, the innovation change, but just making yourself available. Showing up for work, not only for the patients, but for your fellow team and everything else. Man, that's fantastic. That's a great place to wrap up, I think, for the day. man, for all the listeners out there, every one of these, I've walked away with new wisdom, new understanding. To be frank, all these episodes have been a huge blessing to me. And I've heard back from some folks out in the community that it's a blessing to them. So do me a favor. I want to put the shine on these guys and all the other employees that we brought on. So please help us share this. We're on Apple, ⁓ Apple Podcasts. We're on Spotify now. We're on YouTube. So, and then, and our marketing team's doing a great job of putting out some kind of shorter clips. Help us share those on Facebook, wherever, share them with your family. If you hear something that is meaningful to you, it'll probably be meaningful to somebody else. We wanna share the wealth of knowledge. So thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you guys for coming and visiting. Thanks for having us. Thank you for my hat.