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CHKD’s Spine Program Receives DNV Certification

Contact: Alice Warchol at (757) 668-9049 or Alice.Warchol@CHKD.org

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.”

Spine Care Team at CHKD

About Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters

CHKD is the only freestanding children’s hospital in Virginia and serves the medical and surgical needs of children throughout greater Hampton Roads, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and northeastern North Carolina. The not-for-profit CHKD Health System operates primary care pediatric practices, surgical practices, multi-service health centers, urgent care centers, and satellite offices throughout its service region. In 2019, CHKD broke ground on Children's Pavilion, a 60-bed, 14-story hospital and outpatient center to address the mental health crisis facing our youth. The new tower opened for inpatient care in October 2022 and for outpatient care in April 2022.