Archive for September, 2018

In a press release published March 5, Surgical Affiliates announced a new partnership with the Regional Medical Center of San Jose, an HCA-affiliated hospital and level II trauma center, to enhance care and expand surgical services.

Benefits of Regional’s Partnership with Surgical Affiliates

Regional Medical Center of San Jose and HCA is one of the largest hospital providers in the country with 177 hospitals and 119 surgery centers in the United States and the UK.

The partnership will help these organizations attain key ACS metrics, improve their current outstanding quality of care, and allows Regional Medical Center access to 24/7 surgery services and trauma care expertise, ultimately supporting local providers and enhancing the center’s already outstanding standards of care.

“We are excited about the management expertise, extra surgical skill, and depth Surgical Affiliates brings to our hospital,” said Richard Kline, MD, Regional’s Medical Director of Trauma. “The partnership enhances the quality of care our surgeons provide to trauma and emergency department patients in our community.”

Surgical Affiliates provides specialty surgical solutions for hospitals who require additional support for acute care, trauma, orthopedic, and neurosurgery patients. A 24/7 emergency surgery service offered by Surgical Affiliates expedites care for patients by ensuring all patients presenting to the Regional Medical Center of San Jose received the high–quality trauma care they need.

To read more about the partnership, click here to jump to the official press release. If you wish to learn more about the surgicalist approach and how you can use it to improve the level of care your hospital, contact us today for a free program analysis consultation.

Benefits of McLaren’s Partnership with Surgical Affiliates

In a  press release published April 30, Surgical Affiliates announced a new partnership with McLaren Northern Michigan, expanding McLaren’s surgical services in the Midwest region of the United States.

McLaren Northern Michigan is a 202-bed, regional referral center located in Petoskey, MI, designated to provide the residents in 22 counties with access to advanced specialty care and the best resources available. The new partnership with Surgical Affiliates will help the system expand its services in emergency trauma surgery and help foster McLaren’s capability to care for more patients.

Surgical Affiliates and McLaren Northern Michigan are evidence-based organizations that currently provide high-quality emergency and general surgical care for patients living in rural areas. The new partnership will allow McLaren access to Surgical Affiliates’ 24/7 surgery services and trauma care expertise while supporting local providers. The new venture will mark Surgical Affiliates’ first partnership with a hospital system in Michigan, further extending their leadership and trauma care expertise in the Midwest region.

“Aside from the people, the most exciting thing about partnering with McLaren Northern Michigan is the ability for us to deliver trauma care to an extraordinarily large geographic area, including northern lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula,” said Chief Medical Officer of Surgical Affiliates, Lynette Scherer, MD, FACS. “The services at McLaren Northern Michigan rival those seen in large, Level 2 Trauma Centers – that’s inspiring!”

To read more about the partnership, click here to jump to the official press release. If you wish to learn more about the surgicalist approach and how you can use it to improve the level of care your hospital, contact us today for a free program analysis consultation.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., [June 28, 2018] — Surgical Affiliates, a leading provider of emergency in-house trauma, orthopedic, neurosurgery, and general surgical programs, announced today that their 24-hour surgical program has helped affiliated hospital, St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital (SLCH), achieve the Clinical Excellence Award in General Surgery from HealthGrades, which ranks the affiliated hospital as performing in the top 10% of hospitals in the nation for inpatient general surgery services and outcomes.

For more information about our surgicalist program, visit: www.samgi.com

SLCH, a member of the Montefiore Health System with campuses in both Newburgh and Cornwall, NY, achieved this recognition as a result of its entire general surgery service, of which Surgical Affiliates’ acute care and trauma surgery programs are a large part. By employing a dedicated 24-hour team of specialized emergency and trauma surgeons, Surgical Affiliates works collaboratively with members of the SLCH team to standardize emergency general surgical care, eliminate supply waste and workflow inefficiencies, and helps reduce overall complications and mortality.

Healthgrades’ recognition of  SLCH  as the top 10% in the nation for general surgery services and outcomes was based on volume-weighted performance on bowel obstruction, colorectal, esophageal/stomach, gallbladder removal, and small intestine surgeries. Approximately 60% of the weighted score was comprised of in-hospital and 30-day mortality rates, whereas 40% was comprised of in-hospital mortality rates only.

The hospital’s low in-hospital and 30-day mortality rates were prime factors associated with award achievement. Overall, the center’s performance exceeded the hospital’s predicted performance in at least 4 of the 5 procedural cohorts.

According to Lynette Scherer, MD, FACS, Chief Medical Officer of Surgical Affiliates, “The commitment of SLCH’s administration and leadership team allowed us to implement our surgical team who committed to timely delivery of evidence-based emergency care,  which as shown here, can lead to better outcomes.  We are proud of our general surgery services team at SLCH!”

About Surgical Affiliates

Surgical Affiliates is a national leader in surgical hospitalist care with published, peer-reviewed results in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons that demonstrates how they benefit hospitals, clinicians, and patients by providing quality 24/7 emergency surgical care. The team is made up of a dynamic group of experienced, board-certified surgeons, healthcare providers, and medical directors. Programs offered to provide strategic, structured surgical programs that encompass Acute Care, Trauma, Neurosurgery, and Orthopedics, and fuse with a hospital’s ICU, Emergency Department, and Medical Hospitalist Program to ensure the quality of care and proper workflow throughout these departments.

Media Contact:

Surgical Affiliates
Pamela Cain
830-755-4740
[email protected]

With hospitals across the nation struggling to keep pace with the growing demand for trauma and acute care surgery, local community surgeons are often forced to perform in multiple spheres of rigorous emergency call schedules and demanding elective practices – leading to high rates of stress and professional dissatisfaction. The Surgical Affiliates acute care surgery model, providing hospitals with 24/7 emergency general surgery care, gives local community surgeons the opportunity to rebalance their surgical careers based on their own individual needs with options to focus exclusively on acute care surgery, elective cases, or a combination of both.

The advantage lies in the division of labor inherent in the Surgical Affiliates acute care surgery model, which provides hospitals with a dedicated, fully staffed trauma and acute care surgery program. An experienced team of board-certified surgical partners providing 24/7 emergency general surgery care creates significant career options for local community surgeons that often lead to reduced stress, a more rewarding professional life, and greater opportunities to lead a more balanced and fulfilling lifestyle.

Providing Appealing Career Choices for Local Surgeons

Many community-based surgeons have become weary of the old surgical model of maintaining an elective practice while taking emergency calls, yet they’re uncertain about the unknown implications of a dedicated trauma and acute care surgery program. Because our focus is to establish community-based practices in the hospitals we serve, Surgical Affiliates welcomes surgeons who are a part of the local community to participate in our trauma and acute care surgery programs either as full-time surgical hospitalists or as part-time acute care surgeons while maintaining their own elective practices.

When a surgical hospitalist program is established, a primary concern for some local surgeons is that their operative volume and compensation will be reduced due to the elimination of all operations and the accompanying stipends. In reality, the data indicates that our surgical hospitalist programs allow local surgeons to maintain or increase their surgical case volume. The flexibility allows surgeons to either focus exclusively on their elective practice or they can combine their elective practice with part-time acute care shifts with the Surgical Affiliates surgical hospitalist program. These options represent the best of all worlds for most surgeons by giving them an opportunity to rebalance their surgical careers according to their individual needs and interests.

Improving Quality Standards and Patient Care – A Priority for Surgeons

At the heart of every surgeon’s professional mission is the desire to provide the highest level of care for patients. Our local surgical partners appreciate and value the high-quality standards on which our surgical hospitalist programs are built, leading to significant, improved outcomes for patients such as reduced complication rates and length of stay (LOS). And because we handle the details of managing the practice, our surgical partners have more time to focus on patient care.

What’s more – whether serving as full-time surgicalists or part-time acute care surgeons – our surgical partners are supported by a team of experienced healthcare professionals who comply with evidence-based medical protocols and treatment algorithms to improve standardization of care and accurate handoff. To further facilitate improved patient care and increased hospital efficiencies, a dedicated medical director serves as an engaged “boots on the ground” surgeon in each of our community-based practices.

Improving Professional Satisfaction and Opening Opportunities for Engagement

Many surgeons adhering to the old surgical model of balancing on-call and elective cases are chronically exhausted from the strain of performing in several different areas with unpredictable schedules, hindering their ability to focus their time and efforts in any one area for an extended time. In providing hospitals with a 24/7, fully staffed trauma and acute care surgery program, Surgical Affiliates support a division of labor that allows surgeons to focus their efforts where they choose and helps to optimize the efficiencies of both the elective and acute care surgical teams.

Surgeons who choose to continue caring for trauma and acute care patients while maintaining elective practices can do so within predictable, manageable part-time shifts supported by a team of board-certified surgeons and other healthcare professionals. And because trauma and acute care surgery patients are managed by the surgeon on duty, surgeons who maintain elective practices no longer worry that the needs of their elective and acute care surgery patients will conflict. The end result for local surgeons who partner with us – the chance to rebalance their surgical careers with reduced stress and more manageable schedules, opening new avenues for a more rewarding professional life and engagement within the hospital and community.