L+M announces addition of two new neurosurgeons
New London — Over the last week, Dr. Ryan Hebert has performed spinal surgeries on four patients at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, bringing relief not only to those local residents but also to the only neurosurgeon who was providing care in L+M’s service area for the last three years.
“For me personally and professionally, this is enormous,” said Dr. Patrick Doherty, who has been the L+M region’s only neurosurgeon since 2013, when Dr. Stanley Pugsley and Dr. Victoria Samuels both left the area. That left Doherty to cover all emergency cases and perform 420 surgeries at L+M annually.
Many patients, he said, were forced to seek care outside the area.
On Friday, L+M Healthcare, now an affiliate of Yale-New Haven Health, announced a restoration and advancement in neurosurgery care available in New London. After unsuccessful attempts by L+M and Doherty to recruit new neurosurgeons to southeastern Connecticut, the hospital’s new more prestigious affiliate has been able to attract Dr. Hebert, who had been practicing at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and Dr. Juan Bartolomei to come to L+M.
Bartolomei, currently at a hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, will be starting at L+M in January.
“What we want is to keep patients as close to home as possible,” said Abe Lopman, senior vice president for operations at Yale-New Haven. “Without this relationship, this couldn’t have happened.”
The addition of the neurosurgeons, Lopman said, is the first of several planned service enhancements at L+M made possible by the affiliation, which was approved by state regulators on Sept. 8. These include additions to The L+M Cancer Center in Waterford and orthopedic surgery, he said. Yale-New Haven also will bring “cutting-edge science” being developed at the Yale-New Haven campus to L+M, he added.
Cardiology and behavioral health services also are being targeted for expansion, said Bruce Cummings, president and chief executive officer of L+M.
The announcement about the new neurologists is particularly exciting, Cummings said, because it demonstrates how the affiliation is making L+M stronger.
“This is the first development that’s a consequence of the affiliation,” Cummings said. “It shows the community benefit of the affiliation.”
Dr. Doherty, who’s been doing neurovascular, spinal and other surgeries at L+M since 1999, said that over the last three years, he worked in partnership with Yale-New Haven to continue providing neurosurgical care in New London, with the help of three physicians’ assistants in his office. But about 47 percent of all the region’s 711 neurosurgery patients in 2015 left the area for care, mainly because of a lack of capacity.
Now, he said, more patients will be able to get surgery close to home, and even patients needing more complex procedures that will have to be done at Yale-New Haven can have their rehabilitation and follow-up care at L+M.
The two additional neurosurgeons also will enable L+M to pursue becoming a Spinal Center of Excellence, a status awarded by the Joint Commission.
“This is a reinstatement of the quantity (of neurosurgeons), but also a step forward in terms of our offerings,” Doherty said.
The added services also will benefit patients at The Westerly Hospital, part of the L+M network. Many patients there who have been leaving the area for neurosurgical care will now be able to go to L+M. Spinal surgery may be offered at Westerly Hospital in the future, Doherty said.
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