Richmond Hospital’s surgical program is one of the best in North America, according to the American College of Surgeons national surgical quality improvement program (ASC NSQIP).
Garnering the “meritorious” distinction on Oct. 18, Richmond Hospital scored highly in eight surgical outcome areas for all surgery cases for the NSQIP performance period of Jan. 1, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2016.
“I feel so privileged to work with a team that has achieved this significant milestone,” said Dr. Brenda Wagner, senior medical director, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) Richmond.
“Everyone, from our pre-operative teams through to our operating and post-operative care unit to our postoperative care, including nurses, care aides, allied staff, cleaning staff, anesthetists, surgeons and the internists have worked together to ensure Richmond is providing safe surgical patient care.
“Going forward, we are going to include the whole perioperative team in our surgical quality meetings so we can continue to build on this significant achievement.”
A total of 66 of 680 participating hospitals have achieved meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2016.
Other hospitals earning the meritorious distinction include St. Michael’s Hospital and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Mount Sinai in New York City, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and Duke University Hospital in North Carolina.
“I am so very proud of our entire Richmond surgical team,” said Gail Malenstyn, director of surgery, procedural care and medicine.
“This award is proof-positive that our collective dedication to improving surgical outcomes starts in our surgeons’ offices and continues through to the staff that works in our post-op units. Every single member of this team is focused on best practice.”
As a participant in ACS NSQIP, Richmond Hospital is required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and collect data that directs patient safety and the quality of surgical care improvements.
