Sylvester Paulasir, M.D.

Meritus Health offers several surgical specialties and options for minimally invasive and robotic surgeries, including the da Vinci XI® and ROSA® technologies. Robotic technology offers surgical patients less pain, quicker healing time and enhanced recovery from their procedures. Robotics assisted surgery is performed in six specialty areas, including gynecologic, general, bariatric, urological, orthopedic and thoracic.

Your care team at Meritus Health will include your surgeon as well as some of the following healthcare professionals depending on your procedure and length of stay:

• Advanced practice practitioners. Nurse practitioners (NP) or physician assistants (PA) may provide pre and post-op examinations, assist with your surgical procedure, and monitor you during recovery.
• An anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist. A specially trained provider who will put you to sleep and keep you comfortable during your surgery.
• Nurses and nursing assistants. Will provide pre and post-op care, including managing your IV needs, surgical dressings and overall health.

The expert team at Meritus Surgical Specialists evaluates and treats a wide range of surgical conditions. Our surgeons use advanced techniques in laparoscopic, minimally invasive and robotic surgery - reducing recovery time and pain. We evaluate and treat conditions like hernias, gallbladder, abdominal surgery, vascular, colorectal, endocrine and cancer removal.

Expert Trauma Care Close to Home

The Trauma Center at Meritus is the busiest in Western Maryland and stands ready 24/7 to provide the highest quality injury care for our community and region. At Meritus, we recognize that the day you suffer an injury is often the “worst day of your life”, and so we have committed to 24/7 in-house trauma surgeons and advanced practice providers (APPs), emergency medicine physicians, anesthesia personnel, emergency and trauma nurses, operating room staff, on-call surgical consultants, and support services for blood, laboratory and radiology, all part of the trauma team essential to providing the highest quality of care.

At Meritus, we have fully equipped and dedicated trauma resuscitation rooms in the Emergency Department. The expert trauma team’s response is organized to provide rapid life-saving care upon arrival of the patient, when every second counts. From the rapid assessment using our state-of-the-art ultrasound machines dedicated to the trauma rooms to immediately available portable xrays to the trauma-dedicated CT scanner adjacent to the trauma rooms, all the skills and technology are available to rapidly detect life-threatening internal bleeding. A trauma operating room also stands by for those that need emergency trauma surgery to control bleeding internally.

Meritus is the only hospital in Western Maryland that stocks Low-Titer O Whole Blood (LTOWB). The use of LTOWB in severely injured has been shown to be life saving first in military experience of the past two decades and subsequently in severely injured in the US. Unlike blood components such as RBCs, plasma, and platelets, LTOWB contains all the components of blood that are lost when a person bleeds and so provides the best method of resuscitation for the severely injured. At Meritus, LTOWB is immediately available for every trauma patient who is in hemorrhagic shock (massive bleeding enough to cause shock) and can be rapidly transfused within minutes of patient arrival when time counts.

The 24/7 in house trauma team also provides full care of the injured from the moment of arrival in the trauma resuscitation room to the operating room and ICU. The same trauma team provides continuity of care throughout the whole hospital stay. In addition, specialists in physical therapy, occupational therapy and case management assess, advise and accompany the as they begin their journey of recovery. Most patients will continue to be monitored by the same trauma team in our trauma clinic after being discharged.

Interested in holding an Injury Prevention Event? Click here to fill out our online interest form.

Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Department Introduction

Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Department Tour

Meet the Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Team

Trauma Program Manager: Tamara Baughman BSN, RM, CEN, TCRN

Injury Prevention Specialist/Base Station Coordinator/EMS Liaison/Safe Kids Washington County Coordinator: Jessica Griffith BSN, CEN

Trauma Registry Specialists:

• Susie Burleson DNP, MBA, RN, NE-BC
• Casey Fleece LPN
• Brittany Jobes BSN, RN
• Brittany Johnson LPN
• Alex Ryder
• Mackenzie Shepherd BSN, RN
• Bethany Henson Whitmore