American College of Surgeons recognizes Christiana Care for ‘Meritorious’ surgical outcomes

Christiana Care Health System has been honored as one of only 66 institutions out of 680 by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress for achieving “Meritorious” outcomes in surgical patient care.

This is the sixth consecutive year that Christiana Care has been recognized through the organization’s National Surgical Quality Improvement Program — also known as ACS NSQIP — which is the only nationally validated quality improvement program that measures and enhances the care of surgical patients.

“This recognition is a reflection of our staff’s commitment to be exceptional today and even better tomorrow and to partner with our patients so they can achieve optimal health,” said Gerard Fulda, M.D., the leader of Christiana Care’s Surgical Service Line.

The program measures actual surgical results 30 days after the operation and makes risk adjustments to compensate for differences among patient populations and acuity levels. Participating hospitals are required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and then analyze their results, which direct patient safety initiatives within the hospital and impact the quality of surgical care.

“This recognition reaffirms the commitment of our surgical nursing staff to provide care that is safest and of the highest quality from the time a patient becomes eligible for surgery to their procedure to their return to home,” said Judith A. Townsley, MSN, RN, CPAN, vice president of Perioperative Services at Christiana Care.

Christiana Care was honored with ACS NSQIP recognition for its performance in eight clinical areas:

• Mortality.
• Cardiac arrest and heart attack.
• Pneumonia.
• Unplanned intubation.
• Ventilator use for longer than 48 hours.
• Renal failure.
• Surgical site infections.
• Urinary tract infection.

Christiana Care’s Surgical Service Line provides coordinated delivery of perioperative care within the general, colorectal, kidney transplant, ophthalmologic, plastic, trauma critical care, oral and maxillofacial, and otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) surgery specialties.

The Surgical Service Line includes two outpatient surgery centers: the Roxana Cannon Arsht Surgicenter in Wilmington and the Christiana Surgicenter on the Christiana Hospital campus in Newark. Both outpatient centers provide patient-friendly care and offer the latest technology for a variety of surgical procedures.

Christiana Care manages more than 38,000 surgical procedures each year at both its hospitals — Christiana Hospital and Wilmington Hospital — and at its outpatient surgical centers. Since Christiana Care began its participation in NSQIP a decade ago, the health system has experienced improvements in patient outcomes that include a reduction in the rates of wound infection, deep vein thrombosis and several other post-operative complications.