GRMC’s Wellness Center offers two medically supervised exercise programs—Cardiac Rehab and Vital Steps. Cardiac Rehab is typically the first step toward recovery after a cardiac event, utilizing exercise, risk factor modification, education, and group discussion. Vital Steps is available to individuals with health concerns who want help starting an exercise program. The staff is composed of a Registered Nurse and Respiratory Therapist who are certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support.
Performing more than 56,000 cardiopulmonary procedures and 7,000 EKG/EEGs annually, the Cardiopulmonary Department helps to support patients with heart, lung, or neurological diseases or conditions, providing treatment and/or diagnostic testing to assess severity and plan for treatment.
Nursing and social work staff work together from the beginning of a patient’s stay in the hospital to proactively plan for continuity of care. The Case Management Department also provides discharge planning to assist patients with arrangements for care after leaving the hospital.
The hospital's Emergency Department, designated a Level IV trauma center, is staffed with licensed physicians, mid-level practitioners, and nursing staff specially trained for emergency care. The Emergency Department treats more than 2,000 patients each month. The hospital also has a Fast Track Minor Medical Emergency Room.
The Heritage Program is an outpatient mental health program which provides comforting and supportive counseling services to encourage and benefit seniors. Under the direction of a board-certified Psychiatrist, the program’s multidisciplinary team provides individual, group and family therapy. The goal of the program is to assist seniors who experience prolonged periods of sadness, anxiety, or unresolved grief.
Guadalupe Regional Home Health provides comprehensive professional care for patients in their home or assisted living environment. Home Health care is provided to patients recovering from an illness or following surgery. Services include nursing, nurse aides, social services, physical, occupational, and speech therapy plus nutritional counseling. Guadalupe Regional Home Health is Joint Commission accredited, licensed by the state, certified by Medicare and Medicaid, and has received the prestigious Home Care Elite Agency designation.
Guadalupe Regional Hospice offers an array of emotional, spiritual, and physical assistance and support for terminally ill patients and their families. Services offered include pain control management, spiritual guidance, counseling, and supportive nursing services. These services are provided regardless of financial ability. Nursing services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Guadalupe Regional Hospice is accredited by Joint Commission and licensed by the state.
Hospitalists are hospital-based physicians, whose primary focus is the general medical care of adult hospital inpatients, helping to ensure that each patient receives high quality and efficient care. These physicians are board certified in Internal Medicine and have years of experience managing medical and critical care patients. Hospitalists keep the patient’s personal physician informed of patient test results and progress, and coordinate discharge plans and follow-up care.
More than 50,000 imaging examinations are performed annually by registered and licensed imaging technologists and interpreted by board-certified radiologists. The Imaging Department’s comprehensive imaging services include:
- Computerized Tomography (CAT scan)
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
- Nuclear Medicine
- Ultrasound (sonography)
- Cardiovascular Ultrasound
- Mammography
- Diagnostic Radiology (X-ray)
The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) utilizes the latest technology and nursing staff with advanced training in critical care to assist seriously ill patients. The low patient-to-nurse ratio allows for enhanced care. The ICU features nine private rooms supplied with emergency equipment and a comforting and quiet environment for patients and family.
The laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation that assists physicians with patient diagnoses. Educated, experienced and licensed professionals staff laboratory services. The main laboratory is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The outpatient laboratory is open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and provides patient registration, convenient parking, and private exam rooms. The outpatient laboratory also serves industries with employment-related examinations including drug screening and breath alcohol testing.
More than 700 babies and their moms receive “Special Touches” care annually at GRMC’s Maternity Services Department. The recently remodeled Maternity Services Department includes three labor and delivery rooms, 12 post partum beds, two of which are new luxury suites, and a 12-bed Level I Nursery equipped with the latest technology to care for newborns. Specially qualified nursing staff provides excellent medical care and emotional support during labor, birth, and postpartum stay. Miracles of Motherhood (MOM) Prepared Childbirth and Breastfeeding classes are offered to help expectant mothers and coaches prepare for labor and birth.
The Nutritional Services Department serves the needs of patients both in and out of the Medical Center. In addition to providing healthy meals to patients, Nutritional Services oversees patients’ daily dietary care and provides education to those with special needs such as diabetes or high cholesterol. The Nutritional Services Department is available for individual outpatient consultations and provides group diabetes classes.
The Guadalupe Regional Medical Center Pain Management Program plays an important role in the treatment and recovery process for patients suffering from chronic spine-related pain. Chronic pain affects many people. Often there is no cure for the source of their pain. Treating chronic pain can prove difficult. However, most patients benefit from aggressive pain management.
Pain management practitioners come from a number of medical specialties; many are anesthesiologists. Pain management often utilizes non-surgical interventions to help patients cope with chronic pain. But each patient is unique. And the goal is to provide as much relief as possible.
Patients must be referred to the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center Pain Management Program after being evaluated by their primary care physicians, neurologists, or surgical specialists.
Epidural steroid injection
Spinal injections are often used for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. An epidural steroid injection inserts a corticosteroid in the spinal canal that travels throughout the canal to coat the nerve roots and the covering of the spinal canal, or dura. The steroid acts as a sustained anti-inflammatory agent, reducing swelling of these nerves and pain. In its therapeutic application, pain relief provided by the epidural steroid injection allows the physician to determine the source of pain.
There are three types of epidural steroid injection—caudal block, translumbar and transforaminal—which differ in the location of the injection site. Because the transforaminal injection is the most focused epidural steroid injection, targeting a specific nerve root, it is the injection most often used for diagnostic purposes. For more information about the different types of epidural steroid injection, scroll down to the Therapeutic Intervention section.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture refers to the placement of thin stainless steel needles in certain locations on the skin, called acupoints. Acupuncture has become increasingly popular in the United States as a treatment for a variety of health concerns, including back pain.
Massage
Studies show that therapeutic massage is superior to both acupuncture and self-care for treating certain types of back pain, although chronic back pain sufferers should seek therapeutic massage as one component of an array of therapies.
Palliative Care provides care to patients with serious, advanced, and/or complex illnesses and assists in transitioning patients and their families from curative care to comfort care. The Palliative and Life Choices team complements care provided by attending physicians. The Palliative Care Program is focused on the relief of suffering and provides help in achieving the best possible quality of life for patients and family members who are facing serious illness.
The Pastoral Care staff are committed, knowledgeable and experienced chaplains who offer compassion, support and respect for patients, families and staff members. In addition to providing support during an illness or crisis, the chaplains are trained to offer assistance with Advanced Care Planning (living wills, medical powers of attorney, DNR orders) and assistance with organ and tissue donation.
Pediatric patients are generally admitted to the Intermediate Care area for diagnoses including moderate to mild respiratory diseases, infections, gastrointestinal (stomach) disorders, or for observation. Rooms are large enough to easily accommodate a crib and a regular bed for parents. When conditions warrant closer observation, pediatric patients may be admitted to the ICU where rooms are private and equipped with advanced bedside monitoring technology. In addition, we also provide surgical services for children. Nurses in both Intermediate Care and ICU are specially trained in the treatment of acutely ill pediatric patients.
The Prescription Assistance Program (PAP) was created in 1999 to help residents in Guadalupe County and the surrounding area who are unable to afford lifesaving medications. In 2006, the program expanded to help patients with no insurance to cover expensive chemotherapy agents. Clients receive free or low-cost medications for their chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, depression, glaucoma, hypertension, and heart disease. The PAP helps individuals of any age and their physicians enroll in free drug programs administered by pharmaceutical companies. The GRMC Prescription Assistance Program has helped over 2,000 local residents receive medications worth over $19 million. PAP is funded with the help of The United Way, Guadalupe County, GRMC, the cities of Seguin and Schertz, a $15 monthly processing fee for PAP enrollees, and donations from local churches, civic organizations and private citizens. If you are interested in enrolling in the PAP, your local physician’s referral is required.
The Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit provides comprehensive rehabilitation for short-term intensive therapy needs. Patients participate in a full range of services with an interdisciplinary team of rehabilitation professionals including the Medical Director, rehab nurses, physical and occupational therapists, and speech therapists. Referrals can be made by physicians, discharge planners, case managers, family or patient self-referral.
The Outpatient Rehabilitation Department provides comprehensive outpatient therapy services, including physical, occupational and speech therapy. The department works to help individuals who have sustained debilitating injury or illness, including orthopedic disorders, strokes, amputation, neurological or muscular disorders, arthritis, neck and back injury or multiple trauma. The department is staffed by experienced licensed professionals providing traditional therapy services in addition to aquatic therapy, work conditioning programs and functional capacity evaluations.
GRMC, in conjunction with South Texas Sleep Diagnostics, offers a sleep disorder diagnostic program to physicians and patients. Located in the Wellness Center, adjacent to the hospital, the Guadalupe Regional Sleep Center provides a beautiful, comfortable environment for the diagnosis of sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, insomnia, or narcolepsy.
Surgical procedures, performed in four surgical suites by highly skilled medical staff utilizing state-of-the-art surgical technology, include laparoscopic surgery, minimally invasive spinal surgery, a full array of general, urologic, ENT, gynecological, and orthopedic procedures, as well as cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. During the last year, more than 1,400 inpatient surgery procedures and 1,700 outpatient surgery procedures were performed at the Medical Center.
The Spinal Surgery Program is at the forefront of innovations in spinal surgery. While traditional spinal surgeries require long incisions and painful extended recovery time, the Spinal Surgery Program specializes in minimally invasive surgery. Minimally invasive spinal surgery requires only a few tiny incisions, causing less blood loss, and allows patients to recover more rapidly while experiencing much less pain.
The Bariatric Surgery Program is designed to assist severely overweight individuals who suffer from health problems aggravated by excessive weight. The Program is comprehensive, including extensive patient education, assessment, and post-surgical support. Guadalupe Regional’s Bariatric Surgery Program has improved the lives of more than 200 program participants.
The Teddy Buerger Center offers three programs—the Employee Assistance Program (EAP); Chemical Dependency Services; and Outpatient Mental Health Services. The EAP provides a cost-effective alternative to businesses to provide short-term counseling to employees and their dependents as well as a 24-hour help line. Chemical Dependency Services provides outpatient substance abuse treatment to residents of Guadalupe and Comal counties. Outpatient Mental Health Services provides counseling services for all members of the community, through individual, marital, and family therapy.
The Treatment Center performs more than 3,000 inpatient and outpatient procedures annually, including endoscopy (an invasive procedure used to diagnose and treat conditions of the esophagus, stomach, common bile duct and liver), chemotherapy, intravenous antibiotic therapy and minor invasive procedures. The department is equipped with state-of-the-art gastrointestinal equipment and technology. In addition to endoscopy, the Treatment Center provides esophageal manometry for diagnostic testing and the pH probe test to identify gastric reflux problems.
Guadalupe Regional Wellness Center’s Community Fitness Center, staffed by degreed and/or certified exercise physiologists, is the realization of GRMC’s commitment to overall community health. The Wellness Center provides the community access to ultramodern exercise equipment, dressing rooms, an aquatic center with a 20′ x 50′ heated pool and hot tub, racquetball courts, as well as aerobic and strength training classes.
The Guadalupe Regional Wound Care Center provides evaluation, treatment and management of problem wounds resistant to healing. The Center’s physicians have extensive backgrounds in wound care, including specialization in hyperbaric and wound care medicine and the management of chronic wounds. The Wound Care Center offers proven methods for chronic wound evaluation, including TcPO2 monitoring and advanced wound care modalities.
For more information about any of these departments, or to request program brochures, please call (830) 379-2411, or (800) 506-6394, and ask to be transferred to the program’s office.
Private Room Suites
Private room suites are available for patients who desire additional privacy, comfort and space for their visitors. A gourmet menu and room services are also provided.
