The newest surgeon at Lancaster Regional Medical Center is ready to make his mark in the College Avenue hospital’s cardiothoracic program.

He’s already made his mark serving in the Middle East.

“It’s sort of like M.A.S.H. — you sit around and wait, then you get busy, then you sit around, then you get busy,” Paul S. Brown Jr. said about his summer deployment to Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Iraq.

The Army Reservist was called to active duty in Honolulu to relieve other surgeons for four months. While there, he was deployed to the Middle East to care for civilian casualties — his first deployment in the 15 years he’s been in the Army Reserves. It was that call to duty that helped land him in Lancaster.

“A lot was happening at the time,” he said. “I knew I had to leave for four months, and I was looking for other opportunities for when I came back.”

Brown, 45, was in practice with another physician in Missouri. A four-month absence would have made it difficult for the other physician to keep the business going without him.

“That’s always a problem when a doctor gets called up,” the St. Louis native said. “A lot of people don’t realize the ramifications when a small-business owner gets called up.”

Conveniently, the call-up came at a time when he was looking for a new challenge.

Brown said even heart surgery is routine after a surgeon has done it for many years. He wanted to help shape a program.

“I was getting bored. I was looking for more challenge and excitement,” he said. “Many surgeons start to look for something to put their own imprint on as opposed to doing the same thing for a long time.”

At the same time, Lancaster Regional was looking to add a cardiothoracic surgeon to its established program. That meant Brown could come onboard and improve a program without having the headache of building it from scratch.

“There had been a long-standing program here, which is easier,” he said. “There was going to be a transition, so I could give input on what I think is important. That’s one thing that intrigued me about Lancaster.”

Brown said teamwork is important to any heart and lung program. So one imprint he hopes to make is adopting standard operating procedures for care — putting the entire care team on the same page.

“A key thing with cardiothoracic surgery is you have to have a team approach. If you take care for every patient in a predictable way, you have the same predictable results,” he said.

“It’s impossible to have five cardiothoracic surgeons all doing surgery different ways. It just doesn’t work.”

In that sense, Brown’s move to Lancaster Regional is strategic. He will pair with Dr. Al Bernabei, who also just joined Lancaster Regional’s cardiothoracic team. They studied surgery together at University of Pennsylvania and, having trained under the same teachers, have similar surgical styles.

Some universities teach surgeons to perform in cold operating rooms; others emphasize the importance of a warm OR. Some teach surgeons to start surgery at the bottom of the heart, while others recommend beginning at the top. Universities even differ on which side of the table a surgeon should stand to perform surgery.

“Different universities have different philosophies,” Brown said. “If you take people who have vastly different schools of thought to work together, it’s almost impossible. Surgeons are constantly butting heads.

“When you’re trained together and taught the same way, it makes it so much easier.”

Brown already relocated his family, including his wife, Julie, a surgical nurse, and two children, to Lititz. Now he’s ready to carve out a heart/lung program that makes Lancaster Regional outstanding.

“Lots of places in the country do heart surgery,” he said. “The message here is that you have a choice in Lancaster again. You’ll get a fine operation at the other hospital. You’ll get a fine operation here. Talk to your surgeon and decide what’s best for you.”


Susan Lindt’s e-mail address is slindt@lnpnews.com. blog comments powered by Disqus