Physicians Regional Medical Center streamlines care for kidney stone treatment

The pain of passing a kidney stone has been compared to childbirth which is why it is a common cause of emergency room visits.

And now, a local health system is rolling out a new plan to speed up care for patients.

More than ten times a week, someone with a problematic kidney stone is wheeled into surgery at Physicians Regional Medical Center.

“We tend to see an uptick in the summer when people are outside more,” said Dr. Barckley Dtorey, a urologist with Physicians Regional Medical Group.

Storey is one of the doctors who pushed for a system to streamline care. Florida sits in what’s called the stone belt.

A warm weather state which has a high number of kidney stones.

The weather doesn’t cause them, but high heat can lead to dehydration and trigger the formation of a kidney stone, which is mostly hard, concentrated calcium in the urine.

More stone production translates to a higher number of cases.

“Because of all the heat and humidity, people are really dehydrated a lot of time. And we’re having problems are having the area for a while getting people just into offices,” Storey said.

As a creative solution, Physicians Regional launched a dedicated kidney stone clinic within its hospitals.

The program allows patients to be diagnosed and treated the same or the next day, jumping the line from general admissions.

“People that end up in these clinics are here, because they’re already in pain, they’re already in discomfort, and we can fast track getting them to the operating room,” Storey said. “Because we have urologists that are in both locations all the time, we usually can get people in fairly quickly.”

Kidney stone removal can be performed through laser surgery, by using shock waves or a technique involving small punctures. Getting timely treatment eliminates the stone, as well as the patient’s pain.