ATLANTA (June 09, 2020) – Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Scottish Rite and Egleston hospitals have been verified as Level I Children’s Surgery Centers by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Children’s Surgery Verification (CSV) Quality Improvement Program. Children’s is the only healthcare system in Georgia and among the select 25 pediatric sites nationwide to earn this distinction.
The goal of the Children’s Surgery Verification Quality Improvement Program is to improve the quality of pediatric surgical care by creating a system that allows for a prospective match of every child’s individual surgical needs with a care environment that has optimal pediatric resources. Verified centers must meet criteria outlined in the official standards document, “Optimal Resources for Children’s Surgical Care.”
“The level I designation is a prestigious honor for our surgery programs at both Scottish Rite and Egleston,” said Kurt Heiss, MD, Medical Director of Surgical Quality at Children's. “This achievement is a testament to our incredible staff and their steadfast commitment to quality improvement and safety efforts for our surgery patients. A recognition of this caliber by the American College of Surgeons underscores our Mission to make kids healthier today and better tomorrow through access to specialized pediatric care and innovative procedures.”
As a verified program, Children’s demonstrated that our surgical programs meet the needs of patients by providing multidisciplinary, high-quality, patient-centered care. In addition to submitting a formal application, systems seeking verification undergo extensive site visits by an ACS team of surveyors. To earn this verification, Children’s met critical criteria, including appropriately trained and experienced staff, advanced surgical facilities, outstanding staff engagement, surgical education and outreach, clear focus on safety and quality improvement, individualized care plans and access to resources.
This achievement was spearheaded by Children’s surgical leaders Mark Wulkan, MD, Kurt Heiss, MD, and John Bleacher, MD, who launched our participation in the Pediatric National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, established the Children's Surgical Performance and Improvement Council, and developed a System-based Mortality and Morbidity Quality Improvement process for each surgical specialty.
The surgical team at Children’s brings pediatric expertise and years of experience to every procedure and performs more pediatric surgeries than any other children’s hospital in the country—more than 43,000 in 2018—from the most common outpatient procedures to the most complex operations requiring specialized, multidisciplinary care. To learn more, visit choa.org/surgery.