Our team is a true family (minus the dysfunction).
We work at Ascension St. Elizabeth Day Surgery Center in Menasha, Wisconsin, and get along very well on the clock and have fun outside of work, too. Our group consists of three board-certified gastroenterologists, nine registered nurses and five technicians.
As most in our industry know, adenoma detection rate (ADR) is a quality measure for endoscopy facilities. ADR looks at the rate at which a physician finds precancerous polyps during a screening colonoscopy. A physician’s ADR has become a gold standard for quality. The American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy has determined that a minimal benchmark rate should be 25% average overall. Our three physicians have ADRs greater than 50% overall. We are all very proud of this and love bragging to patients about it.
We have a fairly large service line, including colonoscopies, gastroscopies, Barrett’s ablation, hemorrhoid ligation with the HET system, reflux services including Bravo and DigiTrap- per, esophageal and anorectal manometry, endoscopic ultra- sound (EUS), and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancrea- tography. Additionally, one of our gastroenterologists recently became board certified in obe- sity medicine and is starting to do Orbera intragastric weight-loss balloons, which we are super excited about!
Our pre-op and recovery nurses do a fantastic job teaching patients how to increase fiber in their diets, the importance of probiotics, when to best take their reflux medicine, and the importance of a repeat colonoscopy if polyps were found or if they have a family history of colon cancer. We also coordinate same-day CT scans for a newly diagnosed mass and any additional labs that need to be drawn, all while providing emotional support for the patient and their family.
One of our gastroenterologists, Dr. Sudeep Sodhi, M.D., gives a biannual talk (pre-COVID) called, “We Are What We Eat: A Gastroenterologist’s Perspective.” He opens his talk with a disclaimer, stating that if the audience members listen to him, it will be bad for his business. He—along with his partners—truly cares about the health of our community.
My colleague Sara Clark, RN, MSN, says, “The unique cohesiveness of our GI team is apparent in everything we do. Our goal is to ensure patients feel comfortable and well cared-for during their visit. From preadmission through discharge, our exceptional teamwork is evident every step of the way. We all understand the importance of one another and appreciate what each staff member brings to the table. The synergy is undeniable. Not a workday goes by that I don’t hear a comment about our team’s cheerfulness, love of our work, or exceptional care with a smile (which was even more obvious before we had to mask every day!). Work isn’t work when you love what you do and those who surround you. I truly feel blessed to have such a remarkable work family.”
Another team member, Vikas Khullar, M.D., says, “With three board-certified physicians who believe ‘there is no I in TEAM’ and work hard to provide high-quality, cost-effective and patient-centered care, I can say our GI team is the best. Be it day or night, we all enjoy getting up and taking care of patients, while at the same time having fun. Each member is treated as an integral part of the team, providing education and support, not only to patients, but also to each other. Outside of work, we get together to have Liver Rounds/
Happy Hour (it’s Wisconsin, after all!) and various team activities. I am proud to be a part of this awesome team!”
We all believe that a team that plays together, stays to- gether. Almost everything we do outside of work has a cancer-awareness flair. We have done marathon relays wearing shirts that were specifically designed to promote screening colonoscopies. We ring bells for the Salvation Army at Christmastime, hand out pens with colon-cancer ribbons on them, and encourage patrons to come see us at work. We have pedaled around our downtown on a Pedal Pub, holding up signs that read, “Clear liquids can be fun,” and telling everyone we meet to make sure they get their screening when it is time.
Every year we come up with a slogan to promote colon- cancer awareness, and the team gets together and dresses up for a photo shoot. We have done a superhero theme (saving lives), boxing (knocking out cancer), and plumber (flushing colon cancer down the toilet). For a football theme (tackling), we all wore the #50 jerseys from our area high schools to signify the importance of screenings at age 50. Most recently, we featured a fire theme, because we want nothing more than to extinguish colorectal cancer. We also make our picture into a holiday card and send it to all our referring physicians in hopes they remember to send patients for their screening.
About five years ago, two of our three gastroenterologists quit on the same day, leaving just Dr. Sodhi. We were able to hire a locum gastroenterologist to help him, but for the most part he carried the load by himself, doing most of the daily colonoscopies and gastroscopies. He also performed all the EUS and ERCP cases. He did this for two years. We were all very thankful that he decided to keep going, even when the going got tough. One of his reasons for not leaving was the people of our community.
It wasn’t easy finding someone who wanted to join a practice in small-town Wisconsin, but we were patient. Vikas Khullar, M.D., joined our team about three years ago, and he was definitely worth the wait. About a year ago, we hired Dr. Sankalp Dwivedi, M.D., to complete our team, and he has been a fantastic addition. All three of them bring something special to the table, and they all complement each other nicely. Besides being excellent endoscopists, these physicians have impeccable bedside manners and compassion, and treat staff with kindness and respect. We now have an All-Star team, and this challenging time of COVID has made us realize firsthand that every cloud has a silver lining.
If I had to sum up our team, I’d have to use the following Mother Teresa quote: “None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”
