December 8, 2000

James J. Mongan, MD, president of the MGH, often receives thank you letters from grateful patients about the services the hospital provides. Below is such a letter about the MGH Surgical Day Care Unit.

Dear Dr. Mongan:

    I am writing to express my gratitude to the entire team of the Surgical Day Care Unit at the MGH. On June 27, I had my right knee arthroscoped by Dinesh Patel, MD, whose reputation is legendary. His treatment of my right knee certainly is no exception to that legend!

     In addition to my surgery, however, I especially want to bring to your attention the professional comprehensive team services delivered by the Surgical Day Care Unit. As a social work educator, I am extremely aware of the importance of support services, especially around such a stressful event as surgery. The team in the Surgical Day Care Unit was superb. It seemed to be a seamless arrangement of caring and informative individuals – from the wonderful MGH volunteer who gave me my stunningly attractive MGH "uniform," to the nurses who stayed with me prior to surgery, to the terrific recovery room nurse, to the delightfully light and sensitive team in the waiting-to-be-picked-up area (their sense of humor was truly balm for us post-surgery folk). In addition to the skilled surgical intervention by Dr. Patel, these other team members made the experience as pleasant as was possible, and this in the face of large volume.

     I have a special place in my mind and heart for the MGH, having trained here in the early '60s as a second-year Simmons School of Social Work student (and had the privilege of working on teams headed by Drs. John Stoeckle and Roman DeSanctis). More important, every bit of my medical care has been delivered by the MGH for 40 years. As both a patient and a social work educator, I just wanted to express my continued appreciation and admiration for the "whole patient-whole team" approach to excellent patient care.

Sincerely,

Nancy W. Veeder, PhD
Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Social Work Boston College