What Matters
Back spine problems can range from sudden trauma to long-term, chronic conditions, so the services offered should also range from primary and urgent care, emergency and trauma care, non-surgical procedures, comprehensive outpatient and inpatient surgery, as well as comprehensive inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation programs.
At Riverside Health
Riverside offers primary and urgent care services, emergency services and the only Level II Trauma Center between Richmond and Norfolk to address everything from managing chronic low back pain to significant spinal trauma. Following any surgery, Riverside has inpatient rehabilitation services in both subacute settings and an acute setting with Riverside Rehabilitation Hospital for more complex spine recovery. Outpatient rehabilitation is also available, as well as home health rehabilitation. All of these services are connected through a common electronic medical record, accessible by both the patient and all members of the clinical care team.
What Matters
A quality spine care program will offer applicable non-surgical options before scheduling spine surgery. Physical therapy, medication or non-invasive procedures such as injections or ablations are sufficient for many patients struggling with spine issues such as spinal stenosis and compressed nerves causing nerve issues in the arms or legs. A trustworthy program will evaluate these options before considering spine surgery.
At Riverside Health
Through primary care and the Access Clinic, patients can go through initial work ups, receive medical management and be referred for physical therapy. Additionally, non-surgical procedures are provided by board-certified Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation physicians to provide relief in the least invasive manner possible.
What Matters
If spinal surgery is needed, you’ll want to look for a spine surgeon who is board certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery and has a proven track record of success. Neurosurgeons not only receive more training in spine surgery than other specialties, but they are the only specialty able to operate inside the dura matter of the spinal cord and the brain. When selecting a surgeon for your spine surgery, you want to look for someone who’s goal it is to not do surgery until all less invasive options are exhausted AND they believe the surgery will leave you in better condition than you are before the procedure. While it may be frustrating to be told you are not a candidate for surgery when you are in pain, a trustworthy surgeon will only operate on patients they are confident they can help.
At Riverside Health
Riverside Health’s highly trained and specialized neurosurgery team not only boasts a wealth of experience in spine surgeries, but also includes two surgeons names to Newsweek’s 2024 “America’s Best Spine Surgeons” list. The neurosurgeons have extensive experience in a wide range of spine surgeries as well as surgical approaches, such as minimally invasive spine surgery and robotic surgery. They also support Riverside Regional Medical Center’s Level 2 Trauma Center by providing 24/7 neurosurgical coverage to the region. Finally, the neurosurgeons work with the Riverside Radiosurgery Center in treating of spinal tumors and metastatic lesions.
What Matters
A comprehensive spine program should offer services for all kinds of spinal conditions, including disk problems, spinal stenosis, compressed nerves, scoliosis and spinal deformities, spine and spinal cord trauma, as well as tumors and metastatic lesions of the spine. A comprehensive spine care program should be able to handle all types of spine surgeries.
At Riverside Health
With Riverside, the team has experience in managing a wide range of spinal conditions from sciatica to tumors. For more information on the specific conditions seen, please see the conditions section. The Riverside neurosurgical team has the experience to handle every case from a single level discectomy to a multilevel spinal reconstruction after a trauma.
What Matters
There’s no better way to evaluate a surgeon or spine care program than to hear from their patients and look at their history of patient outcomes and results. Individual patients can share their stories of if they were able to get back the strength, mobility and flexibility they needed following a spine surgery. Recommendations from trusted physicians, such as a primary care provider, can also be helpful. But there are other technical measures that are also important, including rates of infection after surgery and the number of patients who need to be readmitted or taken back to surgery to correct an issue following an operation.
At Riverside Health
Riverside has earned national recognition for spine surgery excellence by Healthgrades. They assessed 4,500 programs across the United States, recognizing the 100 programs with the highest quality outcomes in back and neck surgery and spinal fusions. Riverside Regional Medical Center was 1 of only 2 programs in Virginia to receive that honor.
Additionally, Riverside’s spine program continues to receive most patients through personal referrals from former patients or other physicians. Knowing our patients had such a good experience that they would trust us to care for someone they love is the highest level of praise.
The national recognitions can assure you that you’re in safe hands at Riverside, and our patient satisfaction and referrals can help you trust that Riverside is the best spine care program in the region.
What Matters
Medical innovations, advanced techniques, cutting-edge technology and state-of-the-art facilities are powerful components of exceptional spine care. Advanced surgical technology to increase safety and accuracy of spine surgeries should be part of a great spine program.
At Riverside Health
A great surgeon needs great tools. That’s why Riverside Health is continually raising the bar in these areas. Some of the recent investments in these technologies include the Mazor X Stealth Edition Robotic Guidance Platform for robotic-guided spinal navigation and the Varian Edge for stereotactic radiosurgery. In addition to investing in the machinery, Riverside Health continues to focus on ensuring there are talented nurses, surgical assistants & technicians, radiation therapists, medical physicists and physical therapists working with the neurosurgeons to care for the patients.
