News

 

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NEWS RELEASE

 

 

February 14, 2008

 

 Surgeons at The Hughston Clinic Acquire Summit Hospital

 

Columbus, Ga. (Feb. 14, 2007) — Surgeons at The Hughston Clinic, P.C., a well-respected orthopaedic practice based in Columbus, Ga., announced today that they have acquired Summit Hospital in Phenix City, Ala., from Ameris Health Systems, LLC. The seven surgeons are Carlton G. Savory, M.D., James E. McGrory, M.D., Lyle A. Norwood, M.D., Patrick J. Fernicola, M.D., Thomas N. Bernard, Jr., M.D., Glenn C. Terry, M.D., and J. Kenneth Burkus, M.D.

 

“Through this acquisition, we are extremely excited about the future opportunities that lie ahead for our patients and the community,” said Carlton G. Savory, M.D, an Orthopaedic Surgeon at The Hughston Clinic. “We have desired a relationship with a hospital where we can make managerial decisions to better serve the needs of our patients. This is an exciting time for Hughston and the community. Welcome to a new era of health care in the Chattahoochee Valley.”

 

To honor Dr. Jack C. Hughston, the founder of The Hughston Clinic in 1949, the surgeons have renamed the hospital the Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital.

 

“It's a great tribute to honor Dr. Hughston by naming the hospital for him,” said Savory, who will serve as Chairman of the Board of Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital. “Dr. Hughston was a true pioneer of orthopaedics and will always be an inspiration to us all. The mission of the Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital will always be to provide the highest quality medical care to the residents in the Chattahoochee Valley region.”

 

The Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital provides the Hughston doctors with another conveniently located facility where they can perform surgeries and other procedures. The main campus of The Hughston Clinic will remain in Columbus at 6262 Veterans Parkway and will continue to serve patients from Columbus and around the region as it has for nearly 60 years. The Hughston Clinic consists of 18 orthopaedic surgeons who treat thousands of patients annually at nine facilities in the Southeast.

 

“We are very excited about the potential of the Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital,” said Mark Baker, COO of The Hughston Clinic. “The purchase of the hospital is consistent with The Hughston Clinic's expansion objectives and strategic plan. The Clinic is growing and expanding in markets throughout the Southeast. Over the past five years Hughston has invested millions of dollars to upgrade technology and renovate facilities with the ultimate goal of creating a more efficient and quality experience for our patients. The Hughston Clinic has always been on the cutting edge of innovation, education and patient care, and that will never change.”

 

Located in Phenix City, Ala., the Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital is an 110,000-square-foot facility with 62 private patient rooms.  Opened in August 2006, the facility is a general hospital providing a wide array of services such as a Surgery Department with outpatient, endoscopy and orthopaedics; and a Diagnostic Imaging Department with ultrasound, MRI and 64-Slice CT Scanner, one of the few scanners of its kind in the region. The hospital features wireless Internet access, 27-inch flat screen televisions in each patient room, a dining hall with outdoor terrace, and floor-to-ceiling windows providing natural light. The hospital received a National Pyramid Award in 2006 from the Associated Builders & Contractors for excellence in design and construction of a healthcare facility.

 

ABOUT THE HUGHSTON CLINIC

Based in Columbus, Ga., The Hughston Clinic (www.hughston.com) is a full-service orthopaedic practice with nine offices in Georgia and Alabama. Founded in 1949 by Dr. Jack C. Hughston, The Hughston Clinic is a nationally and internationally recognized center of excellence for research, education, training, and the quality treatment of musculoskeletal injury and disease. Other facilities and services located on the campus of The Hughston Clinic in Columbus include The Hughston Foundation Inc., the Hughston Health Center, Hughston Rehabilitation, and Hughston Diagnostics.  

 

Contact:

John Carroll, 706-332-5926

Carroll Communications Inc.

jkcarroll@knology.net

 

Mark Baker, 706-494-3265

The Hughston Clinic, P.C.

mbaker@hughston.com

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February 09, 2008

Symposium Showcases Advances in Sports Medicine

BY BORDEN BLACK --

Special to the Ledger-Enquirer

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Dr. Dave Clark, an orthopedic surgeon from Alabama, recalled that while working as an Army surgeon in Heidelberg, Germany, years ago he needed a special tool and ended up buying a drill at the hardware store. The equipment, the techniques and the necessary skills for orthopedic surgery have changed a lot since then. More than a hundred doctors from three states took the opportunity Feb. 1-2 to learn about the latest methods and tools available to benefit their patients.

The First Annual Georgia-Alabama Sports Medicine Symposium was part of the Hughston Foundation's goal of providing education and research, according to Dr. Champ Baker, one of the conference's organizers.

"It introduces the doctors to techniques and shows them how to do procedures," he said.

One of the procedures attracting a lot of attention on the first day was a minimally invasive repair of the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament.) It is the second-most commonly injured knee ligament and is frequently damaged by athletes. Dr. Fred Flandry, of the Hughston Clinic, said the new technique for all-inside-repair, is one of the most minimally invasive.

"We used to make incisions. Now we are finding ways to drill tunnels and pass graphs through some puncture areas," he explained.

Flandry added that The Hughston Clinic has been pioneering such techniques as far back as the 1980s. "What were already minimally invasive arthroscopic procedures... we are making them even more minimally invasive."

The objective he said is quicker recovery, less pain and less hospitalization for the patient.

"Dr. Hughston always wanted this foundation to be a think tank, where ideas could be disseminated and people in the region, nationally and internationally could come to learn," Flandry said.

One of the attendees, Dr. Chris Piller of Rome Georgia agreed that such symposiums help doctors learn new methods, reinforce ideas and procedures they have already learned and get ideas from other doctors. "It's all about trying to stay on the cutting edge," he explained.

That's important at the rate Orthopedic Surgery is developing. Flandry said. "If you haven't seen what's out there in the last few months you're behind."

Four hundred new products for orthopedic surgery were put on the market last year alone, Flandry said. Surgeons come up with ideas of what they would like to see in instruments and then engineers at companies like Arthrex, which sponsored the symposium, develop the tools. Doctors with Arthrex demonstrate how to use them at the company's facility in Naples, Fla., or during symposiums like the one held at the Hughston Foundation.

"At things like this you pick up tips and tricks that may help with something you are already doing," said Dr. Randy Schwartzberg, who works with Arthrex.

That's what many of the doctors did between lectures practicing their skills on artificial joints set up in the conference area. "The innovative design of instruments provides better outcomes for patients," said Dr. James Guerra.

"There is no substitute for practice," he said.

In addition to practicing, the doctors watched live demonstrations performed on cadavers which were broadcast from an operating room into the auditorium.

"It wasn't too long ago that if you tore a shoulder you were gone. Now it can be fixed," Baker pointed out. "Surgeons are more skilled today and they have the advantage of these newer technologies."

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February 06, 2008

Hughston Brand Lives On

BY RICHARD HYATT --

Ledger-Enquirer

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Jack Hughston is gone, but his name certainly isn't.

We know the orthopedic clinic in Columbus that has carried his name since 1949.

We know the hospital on the back side of that campus that also bears his name.

Now it appears a hospital on the Phenix City side of the Chattahoochee will be named for the dapper doc with the bow tie and floppy hat.

Six orthopedic surgeons from the Hughston Clinic are buying Summit Hospital and the name on the brick façade will soon be changed to Jack Hughston Memorial.

Dr. Jack has been on my mind. A new knee was installed on my wife's left leg Tuesday morning at the hospital now called Summit. (That was the knee marked yes, not the one with the no on it.)

John Waldrop, who earned his spurs under Hughston, did the deed. He isn't one of the six who owns Summit, but he now replaces joints in Phenix City.

Like so many others, we trust these physicians' work because of the Hughston brand. It is built on the talent and the legend of Dr. Jack, a pioneer in sports medicine who started his career as a doctor for polio kids, back when that disease was every parent's fear.

I first met him on the practice field at Auburn University. The good doctor was a close friend of Coach Shug Jordan and served as team physician at a time when such jobs were scarce. This was an era when sportswriters wrote about knee injuries as simply knee injuries. No one knew you could tear an ACL. We didn't even know a person had an ACL.

When I planned to write about Hughston's lung cancer, he begged me not to. But on the Sunday morning the article appeared, he called me early to thank me for handling it with care.

Anyone who knew Hughston knew the devastation he felt when he and his colleagues were replaced by Auburn. The role of Jim Andrews in this decision added to the disappointment.

That's why I was interested in Chuck Williams' story on Andrews. Columbus knows the super surgeon. He studied under Hughston and watched his star rise at the local clinic.

He was a dynamo. Nothing he did was under the radar. He was part owner of the Red Stixx and most nights was in his box behind third base. When he divorced, the settlement was one of the largest in Muscogee County history.

Andrews was family, and when he left for Birmingham, Ala., Hughston was hurt -- and the wounds never completely healed. When Hughston died at the age of 87, I asked his colleagues whether Andrews would be at the funeral. They said no, but said he had called to speak to Mrs. Hughston.

In the weekend article, Andrews recalled a letter from Hughston that was scrawled on a sheet from a legal pad. Too bad the words weren't delivered in person, for they probably had much to say.

Jack Hughston was the mentor and Jim Andrews the protégé. Hughston was the father and Andrews the son. A reunion between them would have meant more than a name on the side of a building.