AdventHealth Neuroscience Institute’s (NSI) spine surgery programs at Orlando, Altamonte and Celebration recently became the first in Florida and three of the first 16 in the country to earn Spine Surgery Center of Excellence certification from DNV, a worldwide, independent certification body. The DNV survey includes evaluation of 256 data points as well as an in-person survey. It focuses on evaluating processes across the continuum of care that contribute to positive outcomes and support performance improvement. Earning certification validates that a facility meets or exceeds standards of care in spine surgery.
“Our goal is to be recognized as a national, leading spine center of excellence, and the DNV designation is validation that we are on the right track,” explains Chetan K. Patel, MD, Executive Medical Director, Spine, AdventHealth NSI.
Optimizing Spine Surgery Outcomes
Over the past three years, AdventHealth NSI developed and implemented a new multidisciplinary spine surgery pathway that was constructed based on an extensive review of available evidence and best practices along with implementation of an ongoing process improvement infrastructure.
“We focus on addressing all of the modifiable risk factors that could impact a patient’s surgical success,” says Dr. Patel.
The pathway involves the entire spine surgery care team and includes pre-surgical patient optimization and education, evidence-based perioperative care, and post-surgical communication and connection. The ultimate goal is to enhance the value of the spine care provided to patients by delivering better outcomes at a lower cost.
For example, recent evidence shows that malnutrition is an often underdiagnosed condition leading to poor outcomes in spine surgery patients. As a result, the AdventHealth NSI spine team implemented a regimen of nutritional supplements both before and after surgery to optimize surgical healing. In addition, to enhance convenience, increase attendance and mitigate patients’ COVID-19 safety concerns, they also now offer a virtual version of their spine pre-surgical education class.
“We are on a never-ending journey of delivering the best outcomes in the care of spinal pathology,” shares Dr. Patel. “We achieve this by objectively measuring and tracking the quality of our outcomes and then implementing processes that allow us to deliver the best outcome for every patient, every time. DNV conducted a thorough audit of our program and its processes, certifying that our approach has indeed led to better outcomes.”
Being part of DNV also provides the AdventHealth NSI spine surgery team with ongoing access to how quality is being defined and measured at other leading centers of excellence across the country as well as best practices they are deploying to improve outcomes.
“We believe in forever getting better,” concludes Dr. Patel. “That means we are always measuring, evaluating, learning and improving. Ultimately, it is about having the greatest possible impact on our local community and each one of the patients we serve.”
To learn more about this accreditation and how it can help your patients, contact one of our Spine Health care coordinators at [email protected].