Wellstar Kennestone Hospital Verified as Level II Trauma Center by American College of Surgeons

Touch-sensitive technology. More precision. Better surgical images. A new robotic surgery platform at Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center features all this and more. What does that mean for people in our community facing a complex surgery? Everything.

The Da Vinci 5 (DV5) platform allows experienced surgeons at Wellstar Kennestone to be even more precise during delicate procedures. Patients bleed less, heal with smaller scars and usually go home sooner.

“At Wellstar Kennestone, we’re redefining what’s possible in surgical care,” said Lorrie Liang, senior vice president and president of Wellstar Kennestone and Wellstar Windy Hill. “The DV5 demonstrates that we’re not just adopting advanced technology—we are advancing the standard of care across the region.”

What is robotic surgery?

Robotic surgery is a type of minimally invasive surgery. The surgeon sits at a console and controls robotic arms equipped with tiny instruments. A 3D camera magnifies the surgical area. This allows the surgeon to see everything in high definition.

Wellstar Kennestone is one of the first hospitals in Georgia to offer the DV5. However, robotic surgery is not new at the hospital. Our surgeons began using Da Vinci Surgical System platforms in 2007. Today, we offer 17 state-of-the-art Da Vinci robotic surgical suites at several hospitals and two outpatient surgery centers. We use the system for many surgeries, including bariatric (weight loss), cancer and urology procedures.

A clear difference

Dr. Fritz Jean-Pierre has performed more than 2,500 bariatric surgeries in his career. And he’s excited about what the DV5 offers.

“The DV5 allows the surgeon to sense how much push-or-pull force they apply to delicate structures in the body,” said Dr. Jean-Pierre. “Essentially, the technology stops surgeons from putting too much strain on tissues as they maneuver the instruments. Less strain means less trauma and potential injury, leading to faster patient recovery.”

Dr. Jean-Pierre tailors surgery to each patient’s unique needs. The bariatric surgery he performs most often is the gastric sleeve. It involves removing a large portion of the stomach to limit food intake. Precision is essential, especially for patients who weigh more or have complex health conditions.

“After removing part of the stomach, the surgeon reconstructs the gastrointestinal tract. We use many sutures (stitches) to hold everything in place,” he said. “DV5 provides superior dexterity and control, leading to shorter, safer surgeries.”

Intuitive Surgical, the company that created the Da Vinci platform, designated Wellstar Kennestone as an “epicenter” for training in 2011. Surgeons from around the country come to Wellstar Kennestone to observe and learn robotic surgical techniques from Dr. Jean-Pierre and his colleagues.

The impact on outcomes

The DV5 allows surgeons to be more precise than ever, which affects patient outcomes. Dr. Scott Miller, a Wellstar urologist explained.

“The DV5 is ideal for many urologic procedures, such as prostate and kidney removal, bladder surgery and urinary tract reconstruction,” he said. “The improved range-of-motion and visualization features help us protect healthy tissues and nerves. As a result, we can lower the risk of serious side effects like infections and problems with bladder control and sexual function.”

Learn more about robotic surgery at Wellstar.

When Dr. Earl Stewart thinks about health equity, he thinks about patients who delay care because they can’t take time off work, who are seniors silently battling chronic disease in food deserts and who live in communities hit hard when summer heat bears down on the South.

“Health equity,” he said on  The Weekly Check-Up podcast, “means making sure every person, regardless of ZIP code, income or background, has access to the care they need delivered with dignity.”

Dr. Stewart is the medical director of health equity at Wellstar and an internal medicine physician. He’s at the forefront of building a more just healthcare system rooted in listening, proactive outreach and community-based care. His work is redefining what community health looks like in practice.

Health equity starts with access

One of the biggest misconceptions about health equity is that it’s only about insurance coverage. But that’s just the starting point.

“Access doesn’t mean only having a clinic nearby or having insurance,” Dr. Stewart said. “It means that care is affordable, culturally competent, geographically reachable and provided in a way that meets people where they are.”

In Georgia, especially in urban and rural areas, barriers to healthcare can have many forms: long travel times to the nearest physician, language barriers, gaps in preventive care and social factors like food insecurity and housing instability. Each of these affects whether patients seek care at all and what happens when they do.

That’s why Dr. Stewart is helping lead efforts at Wellstar to address care beyond hospital walls, including thinking outside the traditional healthcare model.

Food as medicine for chronic disease

Health happens everywhere, not just in exam rooms. For example, conditions like diabetes and hypertension, wo diseases that disproportionately affect ethnically minoritized and low-income populations, are directly linked to access, or lack of access, to healthy food options.

Wellstar is working to reduce the health impact of food insecurity and chronic disease across the state through:

• Fresh food as medicine initiatives
• Mobile Markets in partnership with Goodr
• Partnerships with local organizations

“If you don’t have access to healthy foods, your ability to control your blood pressure or manage your blood sugar is already compromised,” Dr. Stewart said.

By addressing food insecurity head-on, Wellstar isn’t only treating illness—we’re preventing it through community investment and education.

Mobile health removes barriers

For patients who can’t easily get to a clinic or pharmacy, Wellstar is bringing the clinic to their neighborhoods. Through mobile health programs, including pop-up clinics and food markets, patients can get screened for high blood pressure, pick up healthy groceries or receive preventive education.

“These programs reflect a shift in strategy—from reactive to proactive and from system-centered to patient-centered care,” Dr. Stewart said. “This is PeopleCare in action.”

“Mobile care gives us the chance to address healthcare access in a tangible way,” he added. “It removes barriers before they become complications.”

Health risks presented by climate

In a season of extreme and dangerous weather events, Dr. Stewart noted the connection between climate and health risks, especially for older adults and low-income populations.

“We see emergency department visits spike when the temperatures rise,” he said. “Older adults, people who work outdoors and people with chronic heart and lung conditions are especially vulnerable. Heat isn’t just a weather issue—it’s a health equity issue.”

For communities with limited cooling, transportation or healthcare providers, rising temperatures create a dangerous, often deadly situation. Dr. Stewart sees climate resilience as part of the activities needed to build health equity, calling for stronger connections among climate data analytics, care strategies and community outreach.

Leading with empathy & listening with intention

Health equity starts with listening. Dr. Stewart grounds his leadership in the belief that every patient story matters and empathy is as important as data to the future of healthcare.

With Wellstar Mobile Markets, social determinants of health screenings and mobile health outreach units, Dr. Stewart, the Wellstar Center for Health Equity team and Wellstar clinicians are working to transform healthcare from the inside out.

“Equity is not just the right thing to do morally,” he said. “It’s how we get better outcomes for everyone.”

Hear the full conversation.

Robert Frederick was living a typical life, going to work and spending time with his mother, siblings and children. But then it became hard to breathe when walking short distances or climbing stairs. He got dizzy. Perhaps most disturbingly, he passed out several times—once at a Braves baseball game he attended with his siblings.

"I didn't know what was going on!" Robert recalled.

Difficulty controlling AFib with medication

After passing out the first time, he went to urgent care and was then taken to the hospital by ambulance. He learned his symptoms were caused by atrial fibrillation (AFib), an irregular heartbeat.

Robert began to see Dr. David Caras, a Wellstar general cardiologist, and learned AFib is related to high blood pressure. Successfully managing high blood pressure often helps people keep AFib under control. Despite their efforts, AFib sent Robert to the emergency room two more times.

Suspicion of HCM

Dr. Caras reviewed Robert’s hospital records and found he had increased wall thickness of the left ventricle and a gradient—a pressure difference between the left ventricle and the aorta when the heart pumps. These findings were consistent with a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Characterized by abnormal thickening of the heart muscle, this disease makes it difficult for the heart to pump blood effectively.

Dr. Caras referred Robert to Dr. Melissa Burroughs, an HCM specialist at Wellstar. As a Center of Excellence designated by the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association, Wellstar is one of the leading providers of comprehensive HCM care in Metro Atlanta.

"We have physicians in the group—designated HCM specialists—that are the point person of the patient’s care," Dr. Burroughs explained. “This includes close communication and collaboration with electrophysiologists, surgeons, advanced heart failure specialists, social workers and behavioral health professionals.”

A rare finding leads to Mayo Clinic Care Network collaboration

Robert said, “Dr. Burroughs wanted to do genetic testing to verify that I had HCM."

But genetic testing revealed a rare genetic variant—one not known to be associated with HCM. Dr. Burroughs called it a “diagnostic conundrum.” The genetic variant found was typically associated with a different cardiac disease that Robert did not have. However, he did have clear signs of HCM.

To investigate further, Dr. Burroughs collaborated with other HCM experts through the Mayo Clinic Care Network, of which Wellstar is a member. Mayo Clinic, which is also an HCM Center of Excellence, provided access to its unpublished database, finding Robert’s rare mutation was present in two other family groups with HCM.

“It’s very important that we add to the science—that we include our patients in the registry to enhance what is already known about HCM,” Dr. Burroughs said.

Robert added, “Dr. Burroughs is very persistent. She wanted to know, ‘Why are you having these problems? What’s the root cause?’ She went above and beyond to find that out.”