American College of Surgeons Recognizes ChristianaCare for ‘Meritorious’ Surgical Outcomes for 10th Consecutive Year
ChristianaCare one of just 52 honored by prestigious surgical society in both the ‘All Cases’ and ‘High Risk’ categories
ChristianaCare has been honored as one of only 90 institutions out of 706 by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress for achieving “meritorious” outcomes in surgical patient care. It is the 10th consecutive year that ChristianaCare has been recognized by the ACS.
ChristianaCare was recognized for meritorious care in the “All Cases” and “High Risk” lists–one of only 52 health systems to make both–within the organization’s National Surgical Quality Improvement Program–also known as ACS NSQIP.
The ACS NSQIP is the only nationally validated quality improvement program that measures and enhances the care of surgical patients.
“This recognition by the ACS NSQIP is an affirmation of our deep commitment to helping our patients achieve optimal health,” said Gerard Fulda, M.D., chair of ChristianaCare’s Department of Surgery.
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our surgical team has embraced new ways of working, including evaluating patients virtually, to ensure that they continued to receive safe care of the highest quality.
“This can only happen with caregivers who accept responsibility for their actions and are always striving to meet our very high bar for excellence, a bar that we intentionally raise each year in our journey to be even better tomorrow than we are today.”
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. It also includes the Christiana SurgiCenter at ChristianaCare’s Newark campus. Combined, these facilities perform a combined total of more than 37,000 surgical procedures a year.
“Achieving the meritorious recognition for 10 consecutive years affirms the quality patient care that is delivered every day at ChristianaCare, consistent with our core behavior of being exceptional today and even better tomorrow,” said Daniel Grawl, NCCPA, FAAPA, lead physician assistant for Surgical Services at ChristianaCare.
“It shows the dedication and cohesiveness of our team of interdisciplinary caregivers who strive to deliver our values of love and excellence in every encounter.”
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.
- ChristianaCare was honored by ACS NSQIP for performance in:
- Mortality.
- Cardiac arrest and heart attack.
- Pneumonia.
- Unplanned intubation.
- Ventilator use for longer than 48 hours.
- Renal failure.
- Surgical site infections.
- Urinary tract infections.
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 signifies that we are part of a team that consistently improves the health of our community,” said Marla Sanabria, BSN, RN, CCRN, assistant nurse manager of Surgical Services.
“Our team is committing not only to fully understanding the safety protocols that are needed to protect patients during surgery, but also determined to implement those protocols to ensure that each surgical operation is a success.”
“I’m super elated that we have earned the meritorious recognition for 10 years in a row,” said Latoya Roane, supervisor of Sterile Processing.
“It’s an affirmation that we are doing exactly what we’re supposed to do to achieve safe care in surgical cases, and that our patients are benefiting from our drive for excellence.”
