Transformative Care: Dr. Jennifer Heller is driven to improve our patients’ experience

Jennifer Heller, MD, RPVI, FACS, began her career in vascular surgery more than 20 years ago, yet each day she reminds herself that “routine” things for her are deeply personal for her patients. 

“I think that sometimes we forget, as health care providers, how coming to a hospital is a lot,” she points out. “It’s a lot emotionally; it’s a lot logistically. And if we can improve the quality of the visit for our patients – you can’t put a price on that.” 

Since coming to GBMC to direct the Vein Center in 2017, Dr. Heller has continually looked for and developed new ways to make things better for her patients. She pursued certification in wound care, as it often becomes important to her patients, and Dr. Heller is now the Medical Director of GBMC’s Wound Care Center. She also participates in conferences that focus on lymphedema. All to ensure that, in her words, “we are able to provide state-of-the-art care for our patients.” 

A new Wound Care Center 

The next step for Dr. Heller and her team is an important improvement and a big change: GBMC has begun a fundraising effort to create a new home for Wound Care, one that is closer to the hospital entrance and is designed to provide for the needs of their patients, many of whom have mobility issues. 

This change will take time, but Dr. Heller is already anticipating the benefits. “If we can make it just a little bit easier for patients,” she says, “I think that would be fantastic.” In its new home, the Center will have larger treatment rooms to more easily accommodate the wheelchairs and walkers many patients rely on and bring supplies and instrumentation closer. 

“Patients who are confined to a wheelchair need help getting onto the table to be treated,” Dr. Heller explains. “When there is room for them to move more easily, they will have more dignity. And that’s important to all of us. I see patient transport from the waiting room into the treatment room being smoother and easier on patients and easier on nursing staff,” she adds, “We will need less time for transportation and have more time for treatment.” 

Reaching patients where they are 

When she joined GBMC, Dr. Heller brought a free screening program to the Vein Center that continues to reach patients who might otherwise go undiagnosed. She and her team stay after hours so that they reach those who cannot easily leave work and the program is offered a few times each year in easy-to-reach locations at GBMC. 

There is always at least one patient whose story reminds Dr. Heller and her team of the need for this service. For example, one was unable to get to GBMC during the day. “He had a lot of challenges,” she says. “We found he had an ulcer which we were able to heal with surgery.” 

The program is clearly meeting a need in our community. It requires the kind of dedication patients find in Dr. Jennifer Heller and in every member of her team. 

“I've been in a lot of wonderful departments and hospitals with people who are smart and dedicated and enthusiastic, but I have never been in a department like the Wound Care Center at GBMC, where people are so genuinely empathic and dedicated to the patients. It's evident and it happens every single day,” Dr. Heller says. 

To learn more about the Wound Center relocation and renovation project and how your generosity can help make it possible, please contact: GBMC Philanthropy: (443) 849-2773.