Beaufort Memorial Hospital

Receives National Distinctions for Two Orthopedic Programs

story by EMMA JUNE GROSSKOPF

In a major win for local healthcare, Beaufort Memorial Hospital has earned national distinctions for two of its orthopedic programs—spine surgery and joint replacement—affirming its reputation as a regional leader in surgical excellence. These prestigious designations from Blue Cross Blue Shield spotlight the hospital’s commitment to quality, safety and innovation, and mark a milestone for a community hospital that is setting a new standard for orthopedic care in South Carolina.

The Beaufort Memorial spine surgery program is one of the healthcare system’s newer programs, which makes a recent national designation a remarkable achievement and star in the crown of the organization’s orthopedic care successes.

There are two levels of designation awarded by Blue Cross Blue Shield: Blue Distinction Center and Blue Distinction Center+. The spine surgery program’s designation as a Blue Distinction Center means that the facility demonstrates quality care, treatment expertise and better overall patient results. Criteria weighed for the distinction includes surgery volume and performance measures such as postoperative readmission and surgery complication rates. The hospital system’s knee and hip replacement program once again earned the advanced level of Blue Distinction Center+ for knee and hip replacement.

“Beaufort Memorial is proud to be recognized as a Blue Distinction Center for Spine Surgery and Center+ for joint replacement by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina,” said Russell Baxley, MHA, Beaufort Memorial President and CEO. “The success of our program reflects our excellent orthopedic care team of physicians, nurses, therapists and many others. Each and every one is dedicated to helping our patients achieve the best possible outcomes.”

The community hospital system established its spine surgery program in 2022. Newer programs rarely receive this prestigious national designation, explained Beaufort Memorial Corporate Director of Quality Ashley Hildreth, MSN, RN, CEN, SANE.
“The standards are rigorous, and as such often require many years to achieve as data on mortality, traditions and functional outcomes must be collected and vetted,” Hildreth said.

Blue Distinction Centers for spine surgery provide comprehensive spine surgery services, including laminectomy/discectomy, fusion and decompression procedures for cervical and lumbar spine. Beaufort Memorial offers cervical disc replacements as well – the only health system in the area to offer the procedure, which involves removing a damaged disc from the cervical spine and replacing it with a disc made of synthetic materials. This procedure, performed at Beaufort Memorial by board-certified and fellowship-trained spine surgeon Dr. Andrew Castro, allows for nearly a full range of motion, and results in less pain and better mobility than spinal fusion procedures.

Dr. Castro explained that achieving this designation so quickly sends a message to patients about the level of care at a facility like Beaufort Memorial.

“These national designations mean exceptional care and results,” Dr. Castro said. “Orthopedic care is a huge need in our community. Being able to hold this distinction in spine surgery shows that the organization has demonstrated measurable success in meeting patient safety measures and top-level expertise when it comes to our providers.”

BACK ON HER FEET
Undergoing a spinal procedure in this program in 2023 was life-changing for Sun City resident Grace Sorrentino, whose go-go-go lifestyle (Dr. Castro, her surgeon, described her as a “dynamo”) was impacted by her excruciating lower back, leg and foot pain.

She’d had spinal fusion surgery done on her lumbar spine the year before in her former hometown of Springfield, Ill. After her subsequent relocation to Sun City with her husband Dave, she found that the debilitating pain in her legs had returned – and gotten worse.

“She wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of undergoing a second surgery to correct the first procedure, but if she wanted to be able to walk without experiencing severe pain,“ Dr. Castro said, “she didn’t have much of a choice.“

She underwent revision spine surgery in October 2023, and in 2024 was able to get back to her “dynamo” lifestyle: She does yoga once a week, a dance exercise class, walks three miles every morning with her husband and golfs to her heart’s content.
With a return to the activities she loves, she said she is grateful she made the choice to receive care in Beaufort Memorial’s spine program.

“I thank my lucky stars every day; I’m afraid I would have ended up in a wheelchair,” Sorrentino said.

She added that having experience in the medical field, she knew what to look for and how to determine the best standard of care for patients in her position.

“People in the medical profession, we’re tough on other medical facilities. We have a certain standard of care that we’re looking for,” she said. “I can’t say enough about the care I got at Beaufort Memorial.”

ONGOING EXCELLENCE IN KNEE, HIP REPLACEMENT
Blue Cross Blue Shield awarded the Beaufort Memorial orthopedic program not just one national designation, but two. 2024 marks more than a decade of recognition for the Beaufort Memorial knee and hip replacement program by Blue Cross and Blue Shield. After more than five years as a Blue Distinction Center, it advanced to the Blue Distinction Center+ in 2019.

This Center+ title means that not only has the organization’s program for knee and hip replacement demonstrated high-quality care, provider expertise and better patient results, but also with more affordable care.

The Beaufort Memorial orthopedic program has been recognized for its quality of care before; the Beaufort Memorial Joint Replacement Center is one of only four in the state of South Carolina to achieve Advanced Certification in Total Hip and Knee Replacement Surgery from The Joint Commission, a national healthcare accrediting body.

“Beaufort Memorial has shown time and time again that it is a center for excellence, especially in the area of orthopedics,” Baxley said. “These Blue Distinction Center and Blue Distinction Center+ designations are milestones for this organization as we continue on our mission to expand the highest quality, affordable and accessible care to our patients in the Lowcountry.”

WELCOMING FRESH FACES
Orthopedic care – and specialty care in general – is a huge need in the Lowcountry community, and Beaufort Memorial continues to expand the number of orthopedic specialists on the medical staff to further enhance and expand access to this care throughout the region.

Board-certified, fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon Dr. Cory A. Messerschmidt joins the Beaufort Memorial Orthopaedic Specialists practice from an orthopedic clinic in southern Georgia.

He brings with him sports medicine expertise, performing minimally invasive arthroscopic procedures, like ACL repairs, meniscus preservation and shoulder arthroscopy for both adult and pediatric patients.

During his sports medicine fellowship at Emory University, he worked alongside professional sports teams like the Atlanta Falcons and NCAA collegiate teams like Georgia Tech. He completed his residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, so while he’s a new face in Beaufort, he’s no stranger to the Lowcountry.

Another new face to the practice is nurse practitioner Aron Love, whose background ranges from emergency medicine and urgent care to athletic training, intensive care and orthopedics, including the treatment of injuries like fractures and sprains. He will focus on treating patients experiencing a wide range of orthopedic conditions – including arthritis, carpal tunnel, shoulder conditions, hip and knee pain, and fractures.

This fall, Beaufort Memorial will also welcome Dr. Patrick Pallitto, a fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon specializing in adult reconstructive surgery, who will bring his expertise in hip and knee replacement to the hospital’s medical staff and Advanced Orthopedics & Spine team.

Dr. Pallitto, who will practice with BOSS Orthopaedics, will be utilizing the hospital’s MAKO SmartRobotics™ system to perform robotic-assisted hip and knee replacements, enhancing Beaufort Memorial’s ability to offer leading-edge orthopedic care tailored to each patient’s unique anatomy.

A graduate of the College of Charleston, Dr. Pallitto earned his medical degree from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He completed his orthopedic residency at the University of North Carolina Hospitals and advanced fellowship training in adult reconstruction at the University of Pittsburgh. His clinical interests include primary and revision joint replacement, arthritis management and musculoskeletal injury care.

Both Dr. Messerschmidt and Love will see patients at the Beaufort Memorial Orthopaedic Specialists offices in Port Royal and Okatie, while Dr. Pallitto will practice with BOSS Orthopaedics in Beaufort, Bluffton and Hilton Head Island.

The new providers join a highly-skilled team of board-certified, fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeons that include Dr. Vandit Sardana, the hospital’s Orthopedic Department chair, Mark Dean, Dan Del Gaizo, Ralph Salzer and Douglas Scott, and spine specialists Drs. Andrew Castro and Scott Strohmeyer, along with program coordinator Dana Aiken, RN, and a dedicated team of experienced nursing and rehabilitation professionals. To learn more about the program, visit BeaufortMemorial.org/Ortho.

“Drs. Messerschmidt and Pallitto, and Mr. Love bring diverse experiences in orthopedic care and a patient-centered philosophy, and are valuable additions to the Beaufort Memorial Advanced Orthopedics & Spine team,” Baxley said. “We are always looking at how to invest in the right people and infrastructure to expand access to high-quality care, deliver the highest value and ensure our patients have the best possible outcomes.”