Surgery Center Excellence: Seattle Children’s Again Receives Level 1 Children’s Surgery Center Designation
June 7, 2023
Seattle Children’s was awarded reverification as a Level 1 Children’s Surgery Center this month. Seattle Children’s is the only children’s hospital in Washington, and one of only 55 in the nation, to achieve this highest level of certification for pediatric hospital surgical programs.
New This Year
New standards this year are focused on multidisciplinary care, opioid stewardship, antimicrobial stewardship and our perioperative risk assessment program. Seattle Children’s initially received the Level 1 designation four years ago when it was first given.
We are honored that the survey team found Seattle Children’s to be an ‘exemplary’ children’s hospital and specifically recognized the robust support from senior leadership for our quality and safety initiatives, and our effective institutional structure that prioritizes and strives to deliver high quality and equitable care in all clinical areas,” said Dr. Andre Dick, senior vice president and surgeon-in-chief.
Level 1 Designation
Level I designation recognizes surgery centers whose quality improvement programs have measurably improved pediatric surgical quality, prevented complications, reduced costs and saved lives. The distinction is given to centers who have completed a verification application and site visit and have met the standards for care outlined in Optimal Resources for Children’s Surgical Care (released in 2021).
Level I centers have specialty trained children’s surgeons in every discipline, with pediatric anesthesiologists and dedicated operating rooms for children available 24 hours a day. They also train future leaders in education and research and participate in community outreach.
A True Team Effort
This designation is not just meaningful for Seattle Children’s surgical services group, but for all 40+ surgical, procedural and support programs and services at Seattle Children’s that interact with surgical patients.
“This is a significant achievement, reinforced by several ACS surveyors who requested we provide guidance for their own children’s hospitals on how to build an effective perioperative quality structure,” said Paul Sharek, vice president chief quality and safety officer and associate chief medical officer. “Most importantly, these efforts reflect an approach that produces superior perioperative care for the patients and families we serve, and our outcomes are consistently world-class as a result.”