FORT GORDON, Ga. —For the second year in a row, Eisenhower Army Medical Center has been recognized by the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program for its safety initiatives and quality of care.

The ACS NSQIP program recognized 60 of 770 participating hospitals for achieving meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2015. Other hospitals selected for recognition include George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C.; New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital; University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore; and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland. EAMC is the only Army Medical Command hospital to be recognized.

"To be recognized among the best … not just among military hospitals, not just among public or private civilian hospitals, but among all hospitals … is an honor for the entire EAMC staff, said Army Col. Michael A. Weber, EAMC commander. "It speaks of our commitment to delivering to our tri-service members and beneficiaries of the greater Fort Gordon community the highest quality care from a high-reliability health care organization. We do this day in and day out, year after year, so the recognition also speaks to EAMC's readiness to serve those who serve the United States."

Participating hospitals are required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and then analyze their results. These results will direct patient safety initiatives within the hospital and impact the quality of surgical care.

"This recognition is really for the hard work people here at Eisenhower have put in for years, establishing a culture of quality and care," said Army Col. James D. Frizzi, EAMC deputy commander for surgical services. "It's nice for an international organization of medical professionals to shine a light on what we do every day. And for the beneficiaries who receive care in the Central Savannah River Area, they can be assured they're getting the best care right here at home at Fort Gordon, not in Atlanta ... but here at home."

The ACS NSQIP recognition program commends a select group of hospitals for achieving meritorious composite score. That composite score was determined through a weighted formula combining eight outcomes. The outcome performances related to patient management were in the following clinical areas: Mortality, Cardiac incidents (cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction); pneumonia, unplanned intubation, ventilator>48 hours, renal failure, SSI (surgical site infections-superficial and deep incisional and organ-space SSIs); or urinary tract infection.

The 60 hospitals commended achieved the distinction based on their outstanding composite quality score.

ACS NSQIP is the only nationally validated quality improvement program that measures and enhances the care of surgical patients. This program measures the actual surgical results 30 days postoperatively as well as risk adjusts patient characteristics to compensate for differences among patient populations and acuity levels. 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.

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