As an executive of a Fortune 500 company, Stewart Brown was a champion of rigorous quality-improvement programs like the famous Six Sigma. Even though he recently retired, Mr. Brown maintains a keen interest in quality, organizational excellence and customer service. As a patient at Cleveland Clinic, “I was impressed by Cleveland Clinic’s pride and teamwork,” says Mr. Brown, “and the way everyone worked to make the patient number one.”
A resident of Hilton Head, S.C., Mr. Brown was diagnosed with kidney cancer in January 2007. The doctors at his local hospital recommended kidney surgery. Mr. Brown wanted a second opinion. “There’s only one place to go,” Mr. Brown recalls his physician saying. “Cleveland Clinic.”
Good News, Bad News and Impressive Teamwork
A trim, active 66-year-old, Mr. Brown had experienced symptoms including fatigue as he was nearing the end of a long automobile trip. His doctors discovered blood clots in his lungs and admitted him to the hospital for four days of blood-thinning treatment. Ten days later, they reviewed his scans and discovered the tumor on his kidney. They also – mistakenly, as it turned out – suspected that a lesion on his lung might be a second cancer site.
Diagnosed with cancer, retired South Carolina executive follows doctors’ advice and heads for Cleveland Clinic.
Both lung and kidney surgery were recommended – the sooner the better.
At Cleveland Clinic, Mr. Brown had his kidney diagnosis confirmed. He also received three pieces of good news: He did not, as had been previously suspected, have lung cancer; and he was eligible for laparoscopic partial nephrectomy – a minimally invasive kidney surgery pioneered at Cleveland Clinic. Finally, since he didn’t have a lung lesion, surgery was less urgent. Kidney surgery was postponed until summer, so Cleveland Clinic vascular specialists could control his blood clots medically.
By July 2007, the blood clots were controlled, and all was in readiness. Mr. Brown was successfully operated on by Jihad Kaouk, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute.
Before his surgery, Mr. Brown was impressed by the teamwork of his caregivers – how everyone from nurses to transporters took time to reassure him, and the intense focus on the patient that characterizes Cleveland Clinic care.
“It was not just the famous doctors,” he says, “but the many people who did their part – big and small – to put the patient first.”
Patient Examines Doctors, Nurses and Hospital Staff
Energetic and inquiring despite his illness, Mr. Brown made an informal study of Cleveland Clinic and its culture over the months and through the many episodes of his care.
“On every occasion, whomever I ran into, I asked employees two questions: ‘How long have you been at Cleveland Clinic, and do you enjoy your work?’ I found people who had been here for 10 to 20 years, award-winning nurses who’d come up through the ranks, employees who admired their co-workers and were simply proud to be working at a medical center with such a great reputation.”
He recalled how, before surgery, as he waited to be transported to the operating room area, employees passing by tapped him reassuringly on the shoulder, and “told me that everyone was working together to make sure that everything went OK for me.”
In his hospital room, “I had nurses who truly cared. Everyone who came by asked how I was. Even the woman who came in to empty the wastebasket stopped and smiled and asked how I was doing.”
Mr. Brown recalls how shortly after surgery, he felt “lousy, sore, tender,” and was roused from his bed for a sponge bath. In response to his questions, the nurse bathing him said she’d worked at Cleveland Clinic 20 years. “I’ll never forget it,” he says. “She was down on her knees, washing between my toes. We were talking, and she said, ‘I love my job.’”
He was also impressed by the way his physicians went out of their way to assure he got the right diagnosis and treatment. He describes his surgeon, Dr. Kaouk, as “a professional, a doer, a thinker. He kept reaching out, with his teddy bear smile, exuding confidence.”
After surgery, Mr. Brown thanked Dr. Kaouk. “He replied, in a soft voice, ‘For each patient, I do this work with my hands and with my heart.’”
To make an appointment with a physician in the Cleveland Clinic Glickm an Urological and Kidney Institute, call 800.884.9551. If calling from outside of the United States, call 001.631.439.1578.
