CHOC Hospital Earned First National Verification in Southern California

CHOC Hospital has been granted Level 1 Children’s Surgical Verification by the American College of Surgeons (ACS). This notable achievement acknowledges CHOC’s steadfast commitment to quality improvement and patient safety efforts for children requiring surgical services. CHOC is the first hospital to earn this distinction in Southern California and one of only four in the state.

To become verified, centers must meet rigorous criteria for staffing, training and facility infrastructure. They must also demonstrate excellent protocols for care to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients undergoing surgery, as well as participate in a national data registry that yields semiannual reports on the quality of its processes and outcomes. The application process for verification is followed by an extensive site visit by an ACS team of surveyors that include experienced pediatric surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses. 

ACS established the Children’s Surgery Verification Quality Improvement Program to improve the quality of children’s surgical care by creating a system that allows for a prospective match of every child’s individual surgical needs with a care environment that has optimal pediatric resources. The program is based on other nationally recognized ACS quality improvement programs that have measurably improved surgical quality.

“When a child needs a surgery, that child’s needs are very different than those of an adult patient needing the same or similar procedure,” said CHOC Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sandip Godambe. “Our nationally recognized surgeons perform the latest procedures, using equipment that is customized to pediatric patients all the way from newborns to young adults—in operating and procedure rooms designed for safety, precision and efficiency.”

The Tidwell Procedure Center at CHOC features seven operating rooms and advanced technology and information systems including the daVinci Si robotic surgical system with Firefly fluorescence imaging; full operating room data, imaging and video integration and video conferencing; the ROSA robotic device for neurological procedures; StealthStation surgical navigation and O-arm imaging technology; and a patient tracking system that allows families to track a patient’s progress throughout the surgical procedure. Using the technology integration system iSuite by Stryker, CHOC was the first children’s hospital in the region to have a fully integrated operating room.

The center also features three state-of-the-art endoscopy procedure rooms, two surgical procedure rooms and a Gastrointestinal Motility Lab. The center provides procedural care for patients of multiple specialties such as gastroenterology, pulmonology, oncology, dentistry and other surgical specialties. An 18-bed pre-operative unit includes all private rooms, and an 18-bed post-anesthesia care unit is configured to meet the unique needs of a wide variety of patients. Two isolation rooms are available for patients with contagious conditions, and other glass-enclosed rooms are for critical care patients who require specialized technology and ventilators.

Also featured is a cardiac catheterization lab — a biplane lab with hybrid capabilities —where invasive and neuroradiology procedures are offered as well. The center also includes a dedicated electrophysiology suite for patients with abnormal heart rhythms, offering both radiofrequency ablation and cryoablation, as well as 3D mapping.