Honored for surgery quality excellence: Kaiser Redwood City

Kaiser Permanente Redwood City 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 recognition demonstrates that Kaiser Permanente Redwood City puts patient care at the forefront of everything we do,” said Grace Firtch, MD, physician-in-chief, Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Medical Center. “We are pleased to be recognized for our surgical care that limits complications and enhances post-operative recovery.”

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 Redwood City is one of 50 hospitals nationwide to receive Meritorious scores in both the “All Cases” and “High Risk” categories.

“We’re really proud of the hard work by our surgeons, nurses and staff who collaborate to provide safe patient care at Kaiser Permanente Redwood City,” said Grace Tay, MD, Chief of Surgery. “We’re constantly reviewing our processes, having team discussions and looking for ways to enhance our surgical outcomes.”

Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Surgical services encompass procedures that are urgent, elective, routine, and specialized. Risk-adjusted data from the July 2020 ACS NSQIP Semiannual Report, which presents data from the 2019 calendar year, were used to determine which hospitals demonstrated meritorious outcomes.

“This recognition is a testament to the effort of our clinicians and staff who are committed to ensuring surgical procedures and high-risk surgeries will have positive outcomes for our patients and members,” said David Bradley, MD, Orthopedic Surgery at Kaiser Permanente Redwood City.

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.