ChristianaCare Achieves ‘Meritorious’ Surgical Outcomes for 9th Year

ChristianaCare has been honored as one of only 89 institutions out of 722 by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress for achieving “meritorious” outcomes in surgical patient care.

This is the ninth 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.

“The extraordinary caregivers that comprise our surgical care team strive to be even more exceptional tomorrow than they are today, and this recognition affirms that continuous improvement,” said Gerard Fulda, M.D., chair of ChristianaCare’s Department of Surgery.

“Our surgical colleagues follow evidence-based practices and find ways, with compassion, to elevate our patients from their injury and health issues to active, healthy lives. We are grateful to receive this recognition as we work to deliver excellence to each and every one of our patients.”

The award recognizes ChristianaCare’s coordinated delivery of perioperative care within the general, colorectal, neurologic, orthopaedic and oral and maxillofacial and otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) surgery specialties. It includes Christiana Hospital and Wilmington Hospital, as well as the Christiana Surgicenter in Newark, representing a combined total of nearly 38,000 surgical procedures a 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.