St. Luke’s Health - Lakeside Hospital: Small in size, massive in medical care

THE WOODLANDS,TX – For the past nearly twenty years, people seeking emergency, medical, and surgical care have driven right past a hidden gem of a fully functional hospital on their way to larger (and more crowded) facilities, thinking it’s merely a medical professional building. But St. Luke’s Health - Lakeside Hospital has been – and continues to be – a top-tier facility capable of handling multiple medical issues in an intimate, comforting environment.

Nestled next to the main campus of St. Luke’s Hospital at 17400 St. Luke's Way on Interstate 45 near SH 242, Lakeside is a three-story hospital licensed as an acute care facility, just as larger hospitals in the area are. Though the emergency room is capable of handling and triaging all sorts of immediate issues, the hospital itself specializes in services in orthopedics, neurosurgery, sports medicine, spine care, and cardiology.

Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, the hospital is open for emergencies and inpatient care. Whether a patient is needing total joint replacements, spinal fusion / back surgery care, a specialized major service line focused on athletic injuries and recovery, general and interventional cardiology services, on-site MRIs, CT scans, nuclear medicine, and general radiography, Lakeside is staffed with approximately 100 healthcare professionals including nursing staff and fully certified surgical teams.

Services offered by the hospital include:

• Abdominal Surgery
• Adult Congenital Heart Disease
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Cardiovascular Surgery
• Clinical Pathology
• Congenital Heart Surgery
• Critical Care
• Elbow Surgery
• Emergency Medicine
• Foot and Ankle Surgery
• General Surgery
• Hip Replacement Surgery
• Infectious Disease
• Neurology (Brain and Spine)
• Orthopedic Spine
• Orthopedic Surgery
• Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
• Spine Care
• Spine Surgery
• Sports Concussion
• Sports Medicine
• Thoracic Surgery
• Trauma Surgery
• Urology

The hospital’s less than 78,000 square feet of space contains 30 beds, six operating suites, 13 ambulatory/pre-op and post-op rooms, and three cardiac catheterization labs.

Woodlands Online recently sat down with Lisa Williams, RN, the Director of Patient Care Services for St. Luke's.

“Though we’re licensed just like any other hospital in the area or elsewhere, we decided to narrow our scope to mainly orthopedics and neurosurgery, scanning, and the like. This narrow focus allowed us to get really good at what we do. We’ll let the bigger hospitals do everything, and we’ll continue to excel at the things we’re really good at,” she said.

Williams is proud of this specialization that sets lakeside apart from its larger sibling facilities. “We are commission-certified for our total joint program, so if you’re going to get your hip already replaced, this is a place to do it, because we’ve been through a series of inspections, and they essentially said, ‘You’ve got a great program, keep it up.’ And so, this is where you want to come.”

Though more often than not, a total joint is considered an outpatient surgery, Williams stresses the hospital ensures a timely discharge in the patients’ best interests. Her pride and belief in the Lakeside system isn’t merely academic; she’s a former patient herself.

“If you remember that old commercial where that guy said he wasn’t just the president, he was also a client, that sort of covers me as well,” she laughed. “I’m not only a director, I’ve also had joints replaced here. So I can tell you I have firsthand experience. I can tell you exactly what to expect. I teach a class that’s open to the public.”

The class was inspired by her mother going in for a surgery around 35 years ago in Dallas, and she found herself completely in the dark as to what to expect during and after the procedure.

“I’ll tell you what’s going to happen during surgery, and I'm gonna tell you what to expect after surgery, because I've been there, and I've done that, and I tell him from some of the mistakes I've made, not only as a caregiver with my mother, but, you know, for myself, too. And so they’re better prepared.”

For a relaxing, professional medical or surgical experience without the frenetic bustle of a larger hospital, consider next time pulling into Lakeside.