Grey Bruce Health Services is one of 88 hospitals worldwide to be recognized by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) for achieving quality outcomes for surgery patients.
The GBHS surgery department participates in the ACS’s National Surgical Quality Improvement program, a world-renowned scientific approach to reducing infection, illness and death related to surgical procedures. The ACS has awarded GBHS ‘meritorious status’ for outcomes for surgical patient care in 2018.
“This recognition puts the GBHS surgery program in an elite category of North American hospitals that offer a very high standard of care, and excellent results for patients undergoing surgery,” said Dr. Alan Lozon, a general surgeon who has been a champion of the program at GBHS for several years. “I am extremely proud of the Operating Room team, and the staff and surgeons involved in every step of the surgery patient’s journey from admission through to discharge.”
Participating hospitals are required to track eight outcomes 30 days after a patient has had surgery. Based on the results, hospitals are recognized for their achievements in either an “All Cases” category or for only “High Risk” patient surgeries. GBHS achieved recognition for all cases measured.
Outcomes in the following eight clinical areas were evaluated:
- Mortality
- Ventilator > 48 hours
- Cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction
- Renal Failure
- Pneumonia
- Surgical site infections
- Unplanned Intubation
- Urinary tract infection
“GBHS is by far the smallest of the 11 Canadian hospitals to achieve this meritorious status,” said Dr. Bob Severs, GBHS Chief of Staff. “When it comes to surgery, our patients can expect to get the same great care as other hospitals who also achieved this recognition – including the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, the Cleveland Clinic, and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre here in Ontario. You can’t get rural health care better than that.”
GBHS has been participating in NSQIP since 2014. GBHS reports outcomes based on the eight clinical areas every six months, and the data allows staff and surgeons to implement quality improvement initiatives to improve results, and learn from the experiences of other participating hospitals. A full list of the recognized hospitals is available online.
