April 25, 2013

Good Samaritan is the first Cincinnati hospital and one of only 12 in the country to achieve The Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval™ for shoulder replacement. The award comes following an on-site survey that evaluated the program for compliance with national standards of care specific to the needs of patients and families, including leadership, performance improvement, self care management, delivery and facilitation of care, and clinical information systems.

The shoulder replacement program is championed by Robert H. Rolf, MD and Samer S. Hasan, MD.

Good Samaritan's hip and knee replacement programs, which received Cincinnati's first Gold Seals of Approval in 2011, received re-certification during the same on-site survey, which took place Feb. 7 and 8.

"I am proud that we have created a joint replacement program at Good Samaritan that is dedicated to evidence-based standards of care and continuous improvement," said John R. Robinson, MD, TriHealth Senior Vice President of Hospital Operations. "These awards symbolize the progress TriHealth has made toward our strategic goal of becoming a market leader in quality, service excellence and patient safety."

"Our Joint Commission certifications directly reflect our commitment to patients in this region," added Mark A. Snyder MD, medical director, Good Samaritan Hospital Orthopedic Center of Excellence. "They trust our physicians and staff to provide the highest quality and safest outcomes during joint replacement surgery. Through unique approaches like our 'Zero in on Zero' initiative, our preoperative anemia screening, and our joint replacement patient registry, we have made significant strides in reducing patient complications." Patients coming to Good Samaritan for joint replacement surgery, for example, have less than a two percent chance of receiving a blood transfusion after surgery compared to a national average transfusion rate of 20 percent or greater.

The Joint Commission certifications reflect the work of a multidisciplinary team of staff and physicians, including the Orthopedic Service Council, made up of 12 high-volume surgeons from four group practices. Congratulations to program administrator Kathy Eten BSN, RN, CCM; physician champions Dr. Snyder, Dr. Rolf, and Dr. Hasan; and to everyone else who was involved in achieving this distinction.