WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has joined forces with 13 other North Carolina hospitals on a nationally-based project to improve the care of patients before and after surgical procedures.
The Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP), sponsored by The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence, seeks to prevent infections resulting from surgery and the complications that may accompany surgery, such as respiratory problems and blood clots. The project was launched in January and will run through January 2007.
“We are proud to join with other statewide hospitals to help prevent infections and improve the procedural care of surgical patients,” explained Patricia Adams, M.D., chief of professional services and co-chair of the Quality of Care Council at Wake Forest Baptist. “Since we have already been participating in the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), we felt this would be a good partnership.”
NSQIP allows for valid comparison of outcomes among all hospitals in the program. Other patient safety and quality of care improvement initiatives that Wake Forest Baptist participates in include the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 100,000 Lives Campaign, an aggressive national initiative to ensure the best practice of medicine, the Patient Safety Guidelines of the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the Patient Safety Net and the Patient Advocate Reporting System.
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Contact: Barbara Evans, bevans@wfubmc.edu, Shannon Koontz, shkoontz@wfubmc.edu or Karen Richardson, krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu, at (336) 716-4587.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine. U.S. News & World Report ranks Wake Forest University School of Medicine 18th in family medicine, 20th in geriatrics, 25th in primary care and 41st in research among the nation's medical schools. It ranks 32nd in research funding by the National Institutes of Health. Almost 150 members of the medical school faculty are listed in Best Doctors in America.