I spent several months last year speaking over the phone with a number of patients who had benefited from either heart or vascular surgery at Jeanes Hospital—the Temple University Health System hospital in Northeast Philadelphia that straddles the Montgomery County line. The project highlighted the fact that patients need not travel to the main Temple University Hospital in order to be operated on by Temple surgeons.

It was pretty much of a turnkey operation: working off a list of patients provided by the staff of the Temple Heart & Vascular Institute at Jeanes Hospital, I called quite a few patients and got additional background, when needed, from nurses, cardiologists and surgeons. In some cases, I did multiple interviews, following up with patients weeks or months after their procedures in order to be able to write about their full, successful recovery. Once I had drafted the stories, I also submitting them to the patients for their review and approval.

Ultimately, I produced 16 profiles. As of this writing, half of the profiles are already posted on the Jeanes Hospital website. I feel that I can put anybody at ease during an interview, and I believe that this project—which involved profiling patients ranging from a 35-year-old father of two who is a university administrator to retired blue-collar workers, grandmothers in their 70s and an 82-year-old retired auto dealer—illustrates that ability.

Click here to read the Jeanes Hospital patient profiles.