American College of Surgeons recognizes ChristianaCare for meritorious surgical outcomes

ChristianaCare has been honored as one of only 88 institutions out of 722 by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress for achieving “meritorious” outcomes in surgical patient care.

This is the eighth consecutive year that ChristianaCare 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.

In addition, ChristianaCare is one of only 56 health systems recognized for “meritorious” patient care in the program’s “all-case” and “high-risk” categories.

“This recognition belongs to all the members of our surgical team, who hold themselves to the highest professional standards and commit to being exceptional today and even better tomorrow,” said Gerard Fulda, M.D., FACS, ChristianaCare’s Surgical Service Line leader.

“Our surgical colleagues follow evidence-based practices and are highly motivated to help our patients prepare and recover from surgery and return to active, healthy lives.”

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

It includes Christiana Hospital and Wilmington Hospital, as well as the Roxana Cannon Arsht Surgicenter in Wilmington, Delaware, and the Christiana Surgicenter in Newark, Delaware, managing a combined total of nearly 38,000 surgical procedures each year.

The ACS NSQIP 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.

ChristianaCare 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.