Medline and DuPont Team Up with VHA to Offer Satellite Education Broadcast on Making Surgery Safer

MUNDELEIN, Ill. -- Medline Industries Inc., and DuPont Medical Fabrics are sponsoring an important satellite education broadcast produced by VHA TV to help hospitals and surgery centers make surgery safer. The joint broadcast effort is in conjunction with a cutting-edge national quality improvement partnership known as the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP). The free hour-long program will be broadcast to VHA and UHC members on Nov. 29, 2005 and then again nationally to all viewers on Dec. 7, 2005.

Studies suggest that up to 40 percent of the more than 42 million operations performed each year have postoperative complications. These complications can lead to pain and discomfort for patients and extended hospital stays.

SCIP is a national quality partnership of organizations committed to reducing surgical complications by 25 percent over the next five years (by 2010). The partners are guided by a steering committee made up of representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, American College of Surgeons, The Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, the American Hospital Association, American Society of Anesthesiologists, Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, the Veterans Administration, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.  SCIP focuses on evidence-based procedure improvements in four target areas:

-- Preventing surgical site infections

-- Reducing adverse cardiac events

-- Preventing blood clots -- venous thromboembolism

-- Preventing or reducing postoperative pneumonia

Medline, DuPont, and VHA have all joined this important project as supporting partners.  "One of the most exciting things about this project is that we are bringing together the partnership of the governmental agencies that have a role and also the healthcare organizations and experts across our country," said Julie Gerberding, MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "By working in partnership with the people on the frontline of care, we can come up with better solutions and we can mobilize to make these solutions lead to better patient outcomes much more quickly."

"VHA is focused on helping its members transform the way they provide care in the OR, and this initiative is part of that effort," said Peter J. Plantes, vice president of clinical performance improvement at VHA. "We're seeing rapid improvements take place when organizations focus on the most essential elements related to surgical care." 

"We're proud to join DuPont in sponsoring this program," said Medline president Andy Mills. "The satellite education session will give concrete ways to help front-line providers improve and provide safer perioperative and postoperative care."

The program features nationally renowned speakers Dale Bratzler, DO, MPH, Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality, Inc.; David Hunt, MD, FACS, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; and Michele Pearson, MD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is intended for physicians, nurses and performance improvement specialists and will:

-- Examine the clinical rationale driving intervention efforts in the four areas of focus

-- Identify evidence-based improvement processes that will help front-line providers effectively deliver safer perioperative and postoperative care preventing surgical complications

-- Determine the impact that SCIP participation can make on the surgical and post-surgical staff.

Transponder/channel information will be provided after registration for the program at www.clinical-education.org.  No decoder is required to view the program on C-band it will be broadcast "in the clear." For more information on the continuing education credits for physicians and nurses, go to: http://www.clinical-education.org/Programs/05-1207/materials.asp.

Source: VHA Inc.