Mountain View, CA - June 19, 2012 - El Camino Hospital is the first California hospital to be certified by the Joint Commission in three areas for hip and knee surgery: hip replacement, hip fracture and knee replacement. The Joint Commission is the nation’s oldest and largest evaluation organization in health care, and certification is a widely recognized benchmark for overall program quality.
"I’d like to applaud the orthopedics certification team at our Mountain View campus for their incredible work and commitment to patient care in achieving this certification," said Diana Russell, MSN, RN, chief of clinical operations and chief nursing officer for El Camino Hospital. "These certifications reconfirm the rigorous standards we embrace and reassure the community that El Camino Hospital is their hospital for excellent care."
Although nine hospitals in California are certified in hip replacement and 11 are certified in knee replacement, only El Camino’s Mountain View main hospital has earned certification in hip fracture, making it the only hospital in the state with all three knee and hip credentials.
Certification for hip fracture is very rare; nationwide, only 11 hospitals have met the rigorous Joint Commission standards in this area.
After an exhaustive survey, the Commission stated that each of the three programs (hip replacement, hip fracture and knee replacement) at El Camino Hospital’s Mountain View campus met standards with no areas of deficiency or recommendations necessary to achieve Disease-Specific Care Certification. This means that patient outcomes and satisfaction scores are among the best in the country.
The hospital received especially high marks in these key measures: reduction in time-to-surgery for fragile hip fracture patients, extremely low surgical site infection rate and succeeded in increasing attendance at pre-operative joint replacement classes to best prepare patients for their surgery. The Joint Commission also complemented the programs use of minimally invasive surgical techniques, pain management and early mobility that allows patients to experience a more timely discharge.
"The Commission told us we 'set the bar high' for other hospitals seeking similar certification," added Russell. "With these three certifications, El Camino Hospital becomes the only hospital in California to offer such a highly rated level of care for knee and hip patients."
To read more about the El Camino Hospital Orthopedic Institutes or find a physician, visit https://www.elcaminohealth.org/services/orthopedic-care.
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About Joint Commission Certification
Orthopedic programs that successfully demonstrate compliance in all areas measured by the Joint Commission are awarded certification for a two-year period. Certification demonstrates a hospital’s commitment to a higher standard of service, while also providing an excellent framework for organizational structure and management. To maintain certification, the cycle repeats with an on-site review conducted every two years and a bi-annual submission of an acceptable assessment of compliance by the organization.
About The Joint Commission
The Joint Commission evaluates, accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations in the United States. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and evaluation body in health care. The Joint Commission has 60 years of recognized and respected excellence and expertise in evaluating clinical care quality in all types of provider settings. Read more at www.jointcommission.org.