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American College of Surgeons recognizes surgical team at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend for outstanding patient care and outcomes

November 20, 2015

(Springfield, Ore.)—For the third consecutive year, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) has recognized PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend for excellence in patient safety and quality of surgical care. PeaceHealth Sacred Heart, RiverBend is one of 52 hospitals in the United States to earn this recognition and is one of only five hospitals to receive it for three consecutive years.

The national recognition places PeaceHealth Sacred Heart, RiverBend in the top three percent of hospitals that participate in the respected American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP). 517 hospitals participated in the program in 2014.

The ACS has also chosen to feature the surgical site infection reduction work of David DeHaas, MD and his surgery quality team at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart RiverBend as one of the four case studies in their 2015 Best Practices report.

“This is a great honor and wonderful recognition of the work being done by PeaceHealth’s Surgery Quality team,” said Dr. DeHaas. “By promoting best practices within all of PeaceHealth’s surgical services we are ensuring that our patients will receive the highest level of care with the best outcomes.”

There were a total of 14,723 procedures performed at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart, RiverBend during the 2014 calendar year. Besides the obvious patient benefits, better outcomes also mean lower health care costs. When adverse effects from surgical procedures are reduced or eliminated, health care costs also decline.

“We have already seen enormous cost-of-care savings based on decreased length of stay for our surgical patients, decrease in the number of surgical site infections, and overall reduction in our post-operative complication rates,” said Dr. DeHaas.

As a participant in ACS NSQIP, PeaceHealth tracks the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and collects data to inform patient safety and surgical care improvements. The hospital’s Surgical Quality Team uses the data to identify opportunities for improvement throughout the continuum of care, from pre-admission activities, through surgery and discharge.

The goal is to decrease length of stay, reduce complications and reduce costs for surgical patients so they can return to work and normal life activities sooner.

In assessing hospital performance, ACS NSQIP looked at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart’s performance in eight key areas:

  • Percent of surgery patients who die within 30 days after surgery
  • Percent of surgery patients who had to be reintubated unexpectedly during the post-operative period
  • Percent of patients who are on a ventilator longer than 48 hours
  • Percent of patients who experience kidney failure during or after surgery
  • Percent of patients who experience cardiac complications within 30 days after surgery
  • Percent of surgery patients who contract pneumonia as a complication of their surgical care
  • Percent of patients who experience a surgical site infection within 30 days after surgery
  • Percent of patients who experience a urinary tract infection as a complication of surgery

ACS NSQIP is the only nationally validated quality improvement program that measures and enhances the care of surgical patients. The program measures the actual surgical results 30 days postoperatively, and adjusts ratings to take into account any differences among hospitals in the difficulty of surgeries that they attempt and how sick their patients were at the time of surgery.

ACS NSQIP works to reduce surgical morbidity (infection or illness related to a surgical procedure) and surgical mortality (death related to a surgical procedure). This information provides a firm foundation for surgeons and hospitals to apply best practices to surgery.

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