Program is first in the nation to meet certification requirements for quality and patient safety.
NORFOLK, Va. – CHKD’s Spine Program has received the Advanced Pediatric Spine Certification from DNV Healthcare, an approved hospital accreditation organization through the federal Centers of Medicare and Medicaid. The CHKD Spine Program is the first in the nation to meet the certification’s stringent requirements for quality and patient safety.
“The Advanced Pediatric Spine Certification affirms that we are providing the highest level of pediatric spine care for children,” said Dr. Carl St. Remy, chief of orthopedics and director of the pediatric spine program at CHKD. “It’s also an acknowledgement that we are doing some surgical cases that people haven’t done elsewhere.”
The certification is inclusive of inpatient, outpatient, and same-day elective pediatric surgery in programs managing spine deformity. The focus of the certification encompasses consultation, preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative patient care through discharge.
To receive the certification, CHKD healthcare leaders provided data that illustrate how the spine program follows evidence-based practices that focus on process improvement and real-world advances in workflow and clinical outcomes.
“In one aspect, the certification ensures accountability to make sure that we are always looking for areas to improve our clinical outcomes,” St. Remy said. “But it also offers validation to patients and their families that the experience, skill, and knowledge that they can expect at a pediatric spine facility is up to that standard.”
Patient families have been turning to CHKD’s spine program for its multi-disciplinary approach for years. The program provides care for patients from birth to 21 who have conditions such as scoliosis and other complex spinal defects. It also offers a preoperative surgery program so patients and families can ask informed questions and have the best possible experience.
“The CHKD Spine Program differs from other programs in the country in the way that we work as a team,” St. Remy said. “We’ve built a team with experienced surgeons, a designated nurse coordinator, child life specialists, and highly trained physical therapists and nurses. We also have an anesthesia team that can handle all types of spine cases that we bring to CHKD. Everyone on our team plays an important role.”