Lehigh Regional Medical Center opens new Joint Academy

Oscar Game stands next to wall emblem showing the new Joint Academy at Lehigh Regional Medical Center. Photo by Mel Toadvine
Lehigh Regional Medical Center’s new Joint Academy makes total knee and hip surgery an experience that hospital personnel hope will attract more people to the Lehigh hospital, not only because of the professional and expert surgeons, but the feeling and the ambience of the unit.
When you walk out of the elevator on the hospital’s third floor, you may feel that you’re in an upper end hotel. And the people who greet you won’t treat you like you’re just a number or another patient coming in for surgery. They want you to feel special and they have gone all-out to make you feel good.
Oscar Gamble, director of rehabilitation, has been waiting for this unit to open for several months now. Many of those who work with him, call him a visionary leader. Gamble is eager to talk about the new unit that he helped plan.
“It’s our Joint Academy, like a college, we educate the patient who is facing surgery here, before he or she comes into the unit. We work with them, showing them what to expect and how new ‘joints’ will work and we treat them as if they are our neighbors because actually they are our neighbors,” Gamble said.
Those working in the new unit have received extensive training for at least 18 months in customer relations, Gamble said. They may be professionals in their health fields, but Gamble has gone farther to make sure the program always makes the patient number one.

Staff at new Joint Academy: Shown from left to right at the main nurses station in the new Joint Academy at Lehigh Regional Medical Center are Oscar Gamble, Chris Rakunas, RN Anne Oker; LPN Stacey Lachance; Nancy Solak, nursing director; Liza Hernandez, physical therapist assistant; and Bob Garofalo, occupational therapist. Photo by Mel Toadvine
“We want them to be comfortable and happy here. We have a very attractive unit. These people who come for these surgeries are not sick people, but rather those who come in for a few days to have a total knee or hip replacement.
“While here, we want them and their families to enjoy their stay. So we have gone out of the way to make all of that possible,” Gamble said. And his enthusiasm shows in the faces of those who work in the unit.
There are eight private patient rooms in the huge unit, each decorated like an upper end hotel room. There’s a 32-inch wide screen TV on the wall of each room and furniture for family members.
Instead of cold looking steel medical equipment, each room is trimmed in fine wooden closets, a special bed for orthopedic patients, with the latest state of the art equipment on the bed.
Patients get special treatment while they are there during mealtime. They can serve themselves from a banquet prepared by the hospital’s chef and family

Handbook for patients: Nancy Solak, nursing director at the new Joint Academy at Lehigh Regional Medical Center, holds a book, which gives patients all the information about an upcoming surgery and then pages for follow-up information and a place for patients to keep notes. Photo by Mel Toadvine
members can dine with their loved ones. And the food is like fine restaurant food, Gamble said.
In the multi-purpose room are tables with white tablecloths and on the wall a very large 52-inch flat TV. Along the side are cabinets that are becoming a
museum of sorts, showing the progress and newer types of joints that are used in today’s modern surgeries.
The whole Joint Academy Unit, including hallways, meeting rooms, patients’ rooms and the room where the buffet is served, is beautifully decorated with
large prints and bright colors.
“Ro McDonald of Accent On Interiors in Lehigh deserves a lot of credit for the way our unit appears. She did a wonderful job in decorating this unit,” Gamble said. “We asked her to make it attractive, inviting and pleasing to those who come here.”
Nancy Solak is the nursing director in the Joint Academy. She said patients who come in for joint replacement are given a book, like in a university, explaining every detail of what to expect.
She personally talks to each and every patient, and shows illustrations of how a new joint will work, using the latest plastic models.
“They take this book with them when they leave and they can keep notes in it and we ask them to come back in three months for a review of their progress,” Solak said.
Gamble said they call it the Joint Academy because it is like attending a college due to the very personal educational process for the patients.
“We even give them a degree when they leave and a photo,” Gamble said. Solak has a brown bag for them, which may contain a muffin prune juice or some other refreshment.
“We want a ‘good feeling ‘ atmosphere here and I think we have done that,” Gamble said.
The unit has only been open for a couple of weeks.
“We didn’t go out to seek a lot of fanfare we wanted to see how things went and we are very proud and happy with how it has gone for our patients. I think they have had a good experience.”
Patients of the Joint Academy can take rehabilitation at the medical building, adjoining to the hospital where there is an extensive set-up for those who need to learn to walk up and down stairs and how to move about when they return to their homes. Gamble said many patients go through the rehab center there, but some have home rehab services, where someone goes to the patient’s home.
The idea for such a center came about when surgeon Dr. Peter J. Curcione first approached Jose Morillo, Lehigh Regional Medical Center’s CEO.
“It was in October of 2007 and he said he and other surgeons wanted the hospital to consider building such a unit because of the number of patients in
Lehigh who have knee and hip replacements.
“In the past, many of them were treated in Fort Myers,” Morillo said. “They don’t have to do that now, not with our new Joint Academy, one of the best in Southwest Florida.”
Morillo said in addition to Curcione, there are Dr. Stephen P. Schroering and Dr. Bob Martinez who will do surgery at the Joint Academy. Curcione is well-
known in Lehigh because has performed hundreds, if not thousands, of knee and hip replacements.
He has invested with others into a large medical complex on Lee Blvd., where his offices will be located, not far from LRMC.
Chris Rakunas, the hospital’s chief operating officer (COO), says he’s excited about the new unit.
“I think our Lehigh residents are going to enjoy spending a short time with us. And we will make their stay a very pleasant one. We have wonderful and caring professional personnel who will attend to the patient’s every want and desire while here,” Rakunas said.
He applauded the efforts of Gamble by calling him a visionary leader because of his leadership in helping to plan the new Joint Academy.
Rakunas said major health insurance carriers cover much of the costs in the unit, as does Medicare. Those questions and details can be worked out well
before a patient comes into the unit.
“Our staff members have been to seminars and are fully trained in their work and in how to relate to our patients,” Gamble said.
“The most important thing here is the patient. We get to know them and we will assure them their stay with us will be very pleasant. I’m very observant. If I know that a certain patient enjoys being alone with a book, then that is how we treat him. If we have a patient who wants to enjoy a TV program, then we have a large screen on the wall for them, just like in a nice hotel room. If we know their preferences in food, we are going to cater to them. Patients’ family members are welcome in the unit at any time and can go up to an area where there are always juices and coffee and other items.
“This is our job and we love our work and we want to make a patient’s stay in our new Joint Academy a pleasant experience,” Gamble said.
- Staff at new Joint Academy: Shown from left to right at the main nurses station in the new Joint Academy at Lehigh Regional Medical Center are Oscar Gamble, Chris Rakunas, RN Anne Oker; LPN Stacey Lachance; Nancy Solak, nursing director; Liza Hernandez, physical therapist assistant; and Bob Garofalo, occupational therapist. Photo by Mel Toadvine
- Handbook for patients: Nancy Solak, nursing director at the new Joint Academy at Lehigh Regional Medical Center, holds a book, which gives patients all the information about an upcoming surgery and then pages for follow-up information and a place for patients to keep notes. Photo by Mel Toadvine