Kaiser Permanente SF Recognized for Excellence by American College of Surgeons
Hospital Receives Meritorious Recognition for High Scores in All Surgical Care Categories
Kaiser Permanente San Francisco has been recognized with the highest rankings possible by the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®). The organization awards the rankings based on the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures.
“This prestigious recognition demonstrates that Kaiser Permanente puts patient care at the forefront of everything we do,” said Ron Groepper, senior VP and area manager, Kaiser Permanente Greater San Francisco Service Area. “We are pleased to be recognized for the high-quality health care provided by our physicians, nurses, and staff.”
The ACS NSQIP recognition program recognizes a select group of hospitals each year. Scores are awarded in both the “All Cases” category and the “High Risk” category, which includes only high-risk cases. For each category, eight clinical factors are considered and scored. They are:
- Mortality
- Cardiac: cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction
- Pneumonia
- Unplanned Intubation
- Ventilator > 48 hours
- Renal Failure
- SSI: superficial incisional SSI, deep incisional SSI, and organ/space SSI
- UTI: urinary tract infection
Kaiser Permanente San Francisco received Meritorious scores in both the “All Cases” and “High Risk” categories. The hospital has received these high scores for the last three years.
“We are proud of our teamwork to continually improve surgical outcomes,” said James Constant, MD, assistant physician in chief – Surgical Quality, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco. “We continually strive to improve our processes in order to advance surgical quality and safety. NSQIP allows us to compare our results, in an ongoing basis, to the entire country.”
Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Surgical services encompass procedures that are urgent, elective, routine, and specialized.
“We do some of the most complex surgery in Northern California, and we rely on an excellent team of surgical specialists to get the job done with the highest regard for quality and safety – from gender reassignment, colorectal, and hepatobiliary surgeries to cardiac, robotic, and gynecologic oncology surgeries,” said Michael Vostrejs, MD, assistant physician in chief – Operating Room, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco,. “This award recognizes our long history of providing excellent, high-quality care to patients across Northern California”.
To be eligible for either list, a hospital must have submitted at least one medical case for 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the current awards are based only on hospital performance in 2018. Kaiser Permanente San Francisco is in a select group, as just 56 out of 592 eligible hospitals were recognized on both the “All Cases” and “High Risk” lists.
“Every Kaiser Permanente Northern California Hospital works together in one of the largest NSQIP collaboratives,” said Dr. Constant. “It is especially gratifying to be recognized for excellent outcomes given the depth and breadth of patient care and the large, multi-disciplinary team working together for our patients.”
ACS NSQIP is the only nationally validated quality improvement program that measures and enhances the care of surgical patients. The goal of ACS NSQIP is to reduce surgical morbidity (infection or illness related to a surgical procedure) and surgical 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. Furthermore, when adverse effects from surgical procedures are reduced and/or eliminated, a reduction in health care costs follows.
