For the second consecutive year, Southlake Regional Health Centre has been acknowledged by the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Program for achieving meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care.
The program commends a select group of hospitals for achieving "a meritorious" composite score for “all cases” — which is the category in which Southlake is being recognized — or “high risk” cases, according to a Southlake news release.
“We are thrilled to once again be named an ACS NSQIP Meritorious hospital,” said Puneet Sandhu, director of Southlake's surgical program. “The surgical team at Southlake has consistently been making an effort to improve quality and this achievement is a testament to their amazing teamwork, as well as our ongoing dedication to patient care and clinical excellence.”
Southlake is required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures, as well as collect data that assesses patient safety to inform improvements in the quality of surgical care. Risk-adjusted data from the July 2023 ACS NSQIP semi-annual report, which presents data from the 2022 calendar year, determined which hospitals demonstrated meritorious outcomes, the hospital stated.
The Newmarket-based hospital was also one of 78 out of 615 participating hospitals recognized with this distinction in 2022.
“This recognition is significant because it says we’re consistently exceeding the standard when being compared to many other hospitals,” said Dr. John Randle, physician leader of Southlake's surgical program. “It shows that the effort that’s been made to improve quality has been successful. Southlake’s surgical team do everything they can to keep patients safe until they are able to return home after their surgery and this recognition of their hard work is so well-deserved.”
Southlake and the other commended hospitals achieved the distinction based on their outstanding composite quality score related to patient management in the following clinical areas: mortality; pneumonia; unplanned intubation; cardiac incidents; urinary tract infections; renal failure; surgical site infections; and ventilator use for more than 48 hours.
“This recognition from the American College of Surgeons is a real team effort, requiring many people working together to achieve it year after year,” said Derek McNally, executive vice-president of clinical services at Southlake. “We are so proud of the entire surgical team at Southlake. The safety of everyone who receives care at Southlake is our top priority, which is demonstrated through these results.”
ACS NSQIP is the only nationally validated quality improvement program that measures and enhances the care of surgical patients. Its goal is to reduce surgical morbidity (infection or illness related to a surgical procedure), mortality (death related to a surgical procedure) and to provide a firm foundation for surgeons to apply what is known as the “best scientific evidence” to the practice of surgery, Southlake said.
Furthermore, when adverse effects from surgical procedures are reduced and/or eliminated, a reduction in health care costs follows. ACS NSQIP is a major program of the American College of Surgeons and is currently used in nearly 850 adult and pediatric hospitals.
