Expanding Hackley's Vision: Getting the Best
Over the last century, Hackley Hospital's prescription for success has been staying on the forefront of medicine.
The tradition of excellence began with Charles H. Hackley, whose last gift to Muskegon was the hospital.
"The hospital is furnished with everything to make the patients comfortable and for the best medical and surgical work," according to the Hackley Hospital report for 1904-1907. "The operating department is supplied with every agency and implement for successful surgery. The static machine is said to be the largest built, and the X-ray outfit is complete in every way.
"Mr. Hackley was most generous in providing the trustees with everything to make the hospital complete, his constant aim being to get the best."
One of the early leaders committed to "getting the best" was radiologist Dr. Leland E. "Cy" Holly. He joined Hackley Hospital in 1933 and opened a radiology lab on Second Street. Holly practiced medicine for 50 years and served as president of the Michigan Association of Roentgenologists and the Muskegon County Medical Society before his death in 1973.
His son, Leland Holly Jr., also was a radiologist in his father's practice.
"Cy Holly kept us up to date - there's no question about that," said Dr. Clay Tellman, a urologist who practiced from 1949 to1982.
Newspaper accounts show that Holly led the drive for the roentgentherapy unit of the X-ray department at Hackley, which was dedicated in November 1934.
In addition to purchasing the latest equipment, Holly worked to attract people with new medical skills, too.
After World War II ended, Holly hired a nuclear physicist, according to Dr. I. Justin Kleaveland, current medical director of Hackley Hospital. The hospital had the first nuclear medicine department west of Detroit, Kleaveland said.
Another breakthrough at the hospital is the progression from "open" surgery to endoscopic surgery. This surgery uses an endoscope, a special viewing instrument that allows a surgeon to see images of the body's internal structures through very small incisions. Endoscopy has been used for decades for a number of procedures, including knee surgery. The incisions are smaller than with open surgery, lessening the risk of nerve damage, among other things.
Another surgical technique, laparoscopy, is used to diagnose and treat a range of abdominal or pelvic problems. It also allows treatment through a small incision. Laparoscopy is usually performed under general anesthesia.
"Laparoscopic surgery is a tremendous advance," Kleaveland said. "There is significant discomfort with open surgery."
Laparoscopy is commonly used for removing the gallbladder. In many cases, the patient can go home the same day as surgery, according to Kleaveland.
About 70 percent of the surgeries at Hackley are handled as outpatient procedures, according to Shirley Shlaffer, director of surgical services. The hospital uses 11 operating rooms and about 11,000 surgeries are performed each year at Hackley.
"You can't name a single discipline in the medical field that hasn't just escalated," said Dr. J. Max Busard, a general surgeon at Hackley Hospital from 1949 to 1989 and medical director of Hospice for 14 years.
"It used to be that with hernia repair, we'd keep the patient for several days, and then it got to the point where they'd go home in the afternoon."
Darlene Smith, who graduated from Hackley School of Nursing in 1960, also has witnessed many changes in medicine. She recalled applying warm water compresses to the eyes of patients after cataract surgery.
"They were sandbagged in bed for three days, and now they go home the same day," she said.
Advances have been made in many other areas, including the treatment of brain cancer. Today, stereotactic radiosurgery provides a single dose of radiation to the precise location of the tumor.
"We can treat it without damaging the whole brain," Kleaveland said
The image guidance system used to remove brain tumors is very exacting and does not touch the healthy brain tissue, Shlaffer added.
The medical team at Hackley Hospital has been fine-tuned over the years, adding experts in cardiology, neurology and oncology. The current Patient and Visitors Guide for the hospital lists 36 specialties.
"Hackley went specialty to specialty until they were all covered," said Dr. Frank L. Pettinga, a family practitioner who came to Muskegon in 1954, served as medical director of Hackley Hospital for eight years and is now the director for International Medicine for American Overseas Clinics Corp.
In 1986, Hackley Hospital opened the area's first inpatient rehabilitation unit. Patients who typically use rehabilitation services are those recovering from strokes, head injuries, hip fractures, joint replacements and multiple injuries.
The rehabilitation unit offers occupational therapy (activities that promote recovery from illness or injury, such as self care, motor skills training, daily living skills); physical therapy (designed to improve movement and function of an individual); and speech therapy (designed to evaluate and treat communication and swallowing disorders).
"It is a big support to have an inhouse rehabilitation center," Shlaffer said.
Hackley is always looking at innovations and continually strives to stay at the forefront of modern medicine. There are a lot of digestive disease problems in the Muskegon area, and Hackley is looking at programs to address these concerns, according to Shlaffer.
"This hospital is very responsive to physicians, and very supportive of education," Shlaffer said.
Pettinga said that he was always amazed at how the board of trustees and administration have backed the medical staff.
"I've been involved in a number of hospitals in the world and in the United States, and Hackley gives more support to its doctors and nurses than any hospital I've been in," Pettinga said.
