TGMC Continues to Thrive on the Leading Edge of Healthcare

Katie Portier | Executive Director, Terrebonne Foundation for Academic Excellence
October 22, 2019
Thibodaux Regional Moving Forward With State-of-the-Art Cancer Center
October 22, 2019
Katie Portier | Executive Director, Terrebonne Foundation for Academic Excellence
October 22, 2019
Thibodaux Regional Moving Forward With State-of-the-Art Cancer Center
October 22, 2019

Terrebonne General Medical Center (TGMC) continues to grow and enhance its facilities while looking to stay on the leading edge of healthcare.

The medical center recently added hospitalist services. The primary responsibility for Doctors Shyam Mani, Oleg Sinyavskiy and Nathan Sutton, along with the department’s nurse practitioners (NP), is to care for patients in a hospital setting.


“This allows the other physicians to be able to have more availability in their clinics to see people when they’re sick,” TGMC President and CEO Phyllis Peoples explained. “So, that works out really well. We have a wonderful team there.”

A newly expanded service, the TGMC Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine, specializes in treating wounds that are difficult to heal. The center has multidisciplinary teams of physicians, nurses and technicians with advanced training in wound care and hyperbaric medicine. It is also the only facility in the region to offer hyperbaric medicine – oxygen therapy that aids in the healing process. Patients benefit by having faster healing rates, longer lasting results, decreased amputation and increased mobility.

Dr. Sina Pourtaheri, an orthopedic spine surgery specialist, and Dr. Nathan Patrick, an orthopedic hand and upper extremity surgery specialist, recently joined the TGMC orthopedics team. Minimally invasive procedures; a comprehensive array of services, including sports medicine, state-of-the-art techniques and implants; and a pre-procedure educational program for all patients who go under for replacement surgeries are offered by the hospital’s orthopedics program. TGMC is also the recipient of the 2019 Women’s Choice Award as one of America’s Best Hospitals for Orthopedics.


Pediatric Care, TGMC has expanded as well. “We have two amazing new pediatricians who have joined us within the last year or two, Dr. Jill Sutton and Dr. Courtnie Seaton,” Peoples said. “They take great care of all of our kids up to the age of 18.”

In addition to the new services and added specialists by the hospital to stay on the leading edge of healthcare, TGMC is also the only facility in the region to offer several unique procedures.

Through its partnership with Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS), TGMC offers 30 innovative clinical trials. Hybrid OR (which is for complex cardiovascular procedures such as a valve replacement), AAA stenting and minimally invasive cardiac surgical procedures are unique to CIS and TGMC’s cardiovascular care. All of which are the only in the region to be offered. Founder and President of Cardiovascular Institute of the South Dr. Craig Walker leads the state-of-the-art program for peripheral vascular disease (PVD) at CIS. The facility also offers 24/7 cardiovascular surgery coverage.


The Mary Bird Perkins TGMC Cancer Center is the only cancer center in the region to have a comprehensive breast cancer center that offers advanced diagnostic imaging (3D mammography, biopsy), treatment and breast reconstruction surgery. The center also is the only in the region to provide Space OAR for prostate cancer, cancer clinical trials for its patients and the newest minimally invasive screening technique EBUS (endobroncial ultrasound transbronchial needle aspiration), which enables physicians to diagnosis lung cancer and determine the extent of its spread.

Led by Doctors Bedford Nieves-Cruz and Sandra Grant, the TGMC Women’s Health Center has the only Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in the region, providing care for premature infants of all gestational ages.

Terrebonne General Medical Center aims to be a leader in the region by also being there for its community.


The TGMC Community Sports Institute provides certified athletic trainers to all Terrebonne Parish (TP) high schools to provide education, prevention and care to student athletes; concussion testing to more than 1,800 TP students; and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automatic external defibrillator training (AED) for Terrebonne Parish schools and recreation departments.

Local businesses partner with TGMC for its Wellness for Life program. The program was designed to reduce absenteeism and turnover, motivate employees, improve overall wellbeing, keep employees happier and more energetic, produce greater productivity, build better relationships between employer and employee and help curb healthcare costs for employers. The program offers on-site wellness screenings that include complete health history for each employee and body composition analysis with complete aggregate report.

The TGMC Well and Wise program is a free educational wellness program designed for anyone age 60 and above. During the program, participants receive the tools and resources they need to stay healthy and active through fitness classes, nutrition seminars and educational lectures led by TGMC experts.


As a member of the Ochsner Health Network, Terrebonne General Medical Center is part of an alliance of healthcare-focused entities across the greater Bayou Region.

Terrebonne General Medical Center is also embracing technology to make information and healthcare more readily available to its customers.

The medical center offers My Chart — which allows its patients to access medical information with the touch of a button. Providers enter a patient’s info in EPIC, the electronic medical system used by a network of medical providers, and patients have access to their own medical records through My Chart. Patients have secure and convenient access to their healthcare information online and can check their test results, schedule appointments, request refills, email their doctor, print their records and pay their bills through My Chart. It can be accessed by patients no matter where they are.


Telemedicine and telehealth are on the horizon for TGMC. Patients will be able to visit with their doctors via video through cellphones or laptops. The medical center is also looking into virtual medicine, giving healthcare professionals the ability to monitor health via smart watches.

“That’s where the future of healthcare is going, and Terrebonne General Medical Center is at the forefront of all of that,” Peoples said. “We’ve been here 65 years, and we continue to grow. We’re going to keep moving into the future.”

BY DREW MILLER