Our award-winning Surgical Short Stay team: back row (l to r): Jemima, Cristy, Elvis, Layla, Candy and Kyra; front row (l to r): Ofelia, Rosalina, Maryanne, Julane, Alda, Meredith, Blanche and Annie.

“It’s like winning the World Series — twice”

UBC Hospital has hit it out of the ballpark again!

In fact, the UBCH team — from perioperative to inpatient to allied and support teams — has joined a rather exclusive club. They’ve won the Meritorious Performing Hospital Award for outstanding surgical outcomes from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) for the second consecutive year — a first for any hospital in Canada.

“It’s like winning the World Series — twice,” says Dr. Gary Redekop, Head of the Department of Surgery and NSQIP Surgeon Champion.

Patients can put their minds at ease

Patients scheduled for surgery at UBC Hospital (UBCH) can put their minds at ease knowing they’ll be in the care of an expert team.

To win the NSQIP award, hospitals undergo a rigorous evaluation of perioperative procedures and their resulting patient outcomes. UBCH was one of 52 NSQIP hospitals from around the world (approximately 10 per cent of 517 participating hospitals) that received outstanding scores for the quality of their surgical care — and one of just 15 recognized for consecutive years of outstanding results.

“We achieve so much more when we work together, and I think this award exemplifies our staff’s consistency to best patient care practices,” says Tracey Taulu, operations director at UBCH. “From preadmission to discharge, the patient is center in everything we do.”

UBCH achieved meritorious outcomes in eight clinical areas: mortality, unplanned intubation, ventilator for longer than 48 hours, renal failure, cardiac incidents, respiratory, surgical site infections, and urinary tract infections.

“Our OR staff are excellent”

Dr. Ryan Paterson, a urologist and NSQIP Surgeon Champion, says NSQIP allows him to measure the quality of his surgical program by comparing it with outcomes from other NSQIP-affiliated hospitals. “I’m able to look at trends and themes occurring among successful procedures, and then I ask for the medical record numbers of those particular cases in order to learn more.”

Dr. Paterson explains that by gathering data from other hospitals and following trends, his team can look at quality assurance more systematically.

“It’s incumbent on each specialty division to do something with the data we request and find ways to improve patient care,” he says. “For example, we’ve enhanced interventions that have resulted in antibiotic reduction, enhanced recovery after surgery and decreased length of stay.”

Patient testimonials validate results, too. “The vast majority of our patients think our OR staff are excellent — and they have every reason to.”

Measuring and enhancing surgical care

NSQIP is the only nationally validated quality improvement program that measures and enhances the care of surgical patients. It compares the surgical results of similar hospitals, in this case UBCH and Eagle Ridge, to compensate for differences among patient populations and acuity levels. The goal of this program is to reduce infections and deaths related to surgical procedure.

Vancouver Coastal Health joined NSQIP in 2011, and it has been implemented at Lions Gate Hospital, Richmond Hospital, Vancouver General Hospital and UBC Hospital.

Learn more about NSQIP on VCH Connect.

Related articles: