Surgical Serenity Solutions moving its headquarters to Florida
Patient uses our app playlist during colonosopy.
After getting off to a strong and stable beginning in Louisville, Kentucky, Surgical Serenity Solutions is moving its headquarters to Sarasota, Florida. In Louisville, we had great, unlimited access to the University of Louisville School of Medicine. We also developed strong relationships with Baptist Health systems here, Norton Hospital system, and the V.A. Robley Rex Hospital.
The surgeons, anesthesiologists, administrators and surgical nurses have been invaluable to us and I know we will continue to stay in touch as we grow and reach out to hospitals and surgery centers around the country. But progress marches on and Sarasota has been calling to us for some time now.
Not only are there far more hospitals and surgery centers in Florida but the weather suits me extremely well and I can handle a small hurricane every now and then, given that there’s always lots of warning.
How will this affect YOU?? Not at all. Although our focus has shifted from individual patients to large hospital systems as well as free-standing surgery centers, we will still be happy to sell individual patients a headphones or two. And of course we will always strongly recommend our surgery app with all five choices available.
As a little aside, yesterday I ran into a physician friend at the fitness center we both go to and he asked when i was going to get a playlist of country music. I laughingly explained to him that there really just wasn’t any country music that fit my requirements. Music has such personal associations and we want music that won’t trigger any negative memories. I would think country music could easily do that!!
Music that is best for surgery is really in a totally unique category that doesn’t have the requirements of music for entertainment or even music that music therapists use. As one of the few clinical musicologists, I have curated and sequenced five playlists in five genres that will get you or your patients through surgical procedure with calm and serenity.
In fact, our music does have unique advantages over music therapy and streaming services. To see a comparison, click here.
If you live anywhere in Florida and would like to come to Sarasota for an introductory meeting, please let me know!
If you are a hospital administrator, surgeon or anesthesiologist, I’d be happy to set up a Zoom meeting with you to introduce our products and services. Just go to www.surgicalserenitysolutions.com/contact-us.
When Surgical Serenity Solutions started a few decades ago, the idea was to provide soothing music to the patient who is very anxious. But around that same time, surgeons were beginning to choose music for themselves to play during surgery. There was a widespread myth that patients under anesthesia would NOT hear the surgeon’s music and therefore surgeon’s could choose whatever they wanted, including such “gems” as “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen.
But then, the next afternoon, I was told that I needed a different MRI that would take about 40-50 minutes. Unfortunately, this time, the music was not enough to keep me from suddenly experiencing a miserable attack of claustrophobia. By then, I had been in the hospital over a day with continuous tests and blood drawn and my back and leg were really hurting, in addition to my blood pressure rising more and more depite lots of hydralazine. Another factor I now understand was that the MRI tech did not break the different segments down for me like the others had done. It helps so much when they say “ok, now you’re going to have 7 minutes of this particular sound” and after 7 minutes they actually check in with me and ask how I’m doing. Assuming I’m OK, then they’ll say “now you’re going to have 6 minutes of this specific sound.” That helps me a lot, but this technician just went directly from one sound to the next with no conversation with me.
I finally did go for an outpatient MRI of head and neck about two weeks later and they gave me an Ativan to calm me before hand. In that case, I fell asleep repeatedly in the machine and there was too much artifact for them to see what they needed to see.
Could you actually forget to play music during the Christmas holidays? It’s unlikely I think but you might logically think that it’s only for celebration purposes. In reality, Christmas can be a time for a full range of emotions from jubilation to devastation and everything in between.
You’re having surgery, or a painful, scary, medical/dental procedure! What should you use if you’ve heard about how music can improve your experience and even your results? The clinical research grows by the day and the result are clear. Using music chosen by the patient makes a huge difference.
Music medicine is often defined as listening to music during medical procedures for a relaxing effect. The advantage over music therapy is that it doesn’t require a trained music therapist so it’s less expensive. It can also be used in more diverse situations where a music therapist wouldn’t be allowed, such as surgery.
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN was my first hospital to use the headphones in their post-cardiac unit and they reported great results! Nurses reported that the patients loved the music and their vital signs stabilized faster and they required less anxiety and pain medication.
The next big hospital that tried my headphones was Cleveland Clinic Florida, on recommendation from the main Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland. I was even invited down to give a Grand Rounds presentation to surgeons and anesthesiologists.
In about 2013 I became acquainter with Dr. Michael Peck, anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins in Maryland. Dr. Peck was a strong advocate from the beginning and gave me so many wonderful ideas as well as purchasing a “Cloud Kit” product for their surgery department.
When I gave birth three times, I knew that I wanted music to be a part of that experience and that I did NOT want any more medication that I absolutely needed. For that reason, my husband and I took the LaMaze childbirth classes and the last time, the Bradley childbirth classes. I also knew that having soothing and calming music would make it a better experience for everyone and my doctor and nurses were fine with that.
Jump to 2005, I attended a conference in Cancun, Mexico created for professional speakers. It was called “Cancun University” and offered 4 learning tracks to improve our businesses. One of the tracks was called “Product Innovation” and the other was called “Internet Marketing.” The very first day of the product innovation class I had the idea to create preloaded headphones for surgery patients. And within months I had filed for the provisional patent and had created a website with a monthly ezine as well as a blog. For a long time I blogged every single day!
Our protocol involves giving the patient their preloaded headphones or MP3 player, in the genre of their choice, as soon as they enter the pre-op area. As they are getting their gown on and perhaps an IV, they are listening to our Surgical Serenity music and their vital signs are calming and moving toward homeostasis.