For the Second Consecutive Year AUBMC Receives International Recognition for Meritorious Outcomes from the American College of Surgeons

For the Second Consecutive Year AUBMC Receives International Recognition for Meritorious Outcomes from the American College of Surgeons

A testimony to the Medical Center’s Quality of Surgical Care

(December 11, 2014) Beirut, Lebanon — For the second consecutive year, the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) has recognized the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) for achieving meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care. Only 44 of the 450 ACS NSQIP participating hospitals received such recognition and AUBMC was one of them. AUBMC was and is still the only medical center outside of North America, to achieve the prestigious distinction and only one out of 12 to do so more than once.

“It is a great attestation for the quality of the surgical care provided at AUBMC,” said Dr. Jamal Hoballah, professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery at AUBMC. “This international recognition affirms our dedication to the meticulous attention we have devoted to patient safety, high quality of care provided, and improved health outcomes at our medical center.” added Dr. Hoballah.

AUBMC-Logo-300x143.jpg As a participant in ACS NSQIP, AUBMC is required to track the outcomes of selected key inpatient surgical procedures and collect data that directs patient safety and the quality of surgical care improvements.

The ACS NSQIP recognition program commends a select group of hospitals for achieving meritorious outcome performances related to patient management in eight clinical areas:  mortality, unplanned intubation, ventilator > 48 hours, renal failure, cardiac incidents (cardiac arrest and myocardial infarction); respiratory (pneumonia); SSI (surgical site infections-superficial and deep incisional and organ-space SSIs); or urinary tract infection. The 44 hospitals commended achieved the distinction based on their outstanding composite quality score in the eight areas listed above.  Risk-adjusted data from the July 2014 ACS NSQIP Semiannual Report, which presents data from the 2013 calendar year, were used to determine which hospitals demonstrated meritorious outcomes.

 “I would like to recognize the incredible work our staff is doing along with the collaboration of the various other departments at AUBMC involved in the care of the surgical patients, as without them this recognition wouldn’t have been possible. We will continue to challenge ourselves internally to achieve more and raise the bar for the healthcare system in Lebanon and the region,” added Dr. Hoballah.

AUBMC received the official recognition at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress, which was held on Oct. 26-30, 2014, in San Francisco.

For more information please visit our website www.aubmc.org or contact:

The AUBMC Office of Communications at 0096 1 350000 ext. 4732

Rana Alley, Director of Strategic Planning and Communications 00961 1 350000 ext. 4722

Email: praubmc@aub.edu.lb

Note to Editors

About AUBMC:

Since 1902, AUBMC has been providing the highest standards of care to patients across Lebanon and the region. It is also the teaching hospital for the Faculty of Medicine at AUB (established in 1867), which has trained generations of medical students and physicians, and whose graduates can be found at leading institutions around the world. AUBMC is the only medical institution in the Middle East to have earned the three international accreditations of JCI, Magnet, CAP, and ACGME-I attesting to its superior standards in patient-centered care, nursing, pathology/laboratory services and graduate medical education.

The Faculty of Medicine has graduated over 4,000 medical students and physicians; the Rafic Hariri School of Nursing provides excellent education for the nursing staff, and the Medical Center meets the health care needs of over 360,000 patient visits annually.

About ACS NSQIP:

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.  Furthermore, when adverse effects from surgical procedures are reduced and/or eliminated, a reduction in health care costs follows.  ACS NSQIP is a major program of the American College of Surgeons and is currently used in over 550 hospitals.

About the American College of Surgeon:

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 74,000 members and it is the largest organization of surgeons in the world.