Children’s Minnesota in the process of becoming a Level I ACS Verified Surgery Center

With more than 26,500 surgeries a year across three surgery centers, Children’s Minnesota performs the most pediatric surgeries in the region on unborn babies and infants to teens and young adults. To further our commitment to patient care, quality and safety, Children’s is in the process to become a Level I ACS Verified Surgery Center. This is the highest level of distinction for hospitals that perform complex surgical procedures in newborns, children and teens. Achieving this verification would mean we’ve met national quality and safety standards for surgery and 30-days of post surgery care.

Children’s submitted its 140-page application in June and the next step is a thorough site visit by an ACS team of surveyors Nov.19-20 to review our structure, process and clinical outcomes. The surveyor team consists of experienced children’s surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses. They will visit our four operating rooms across the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Minnetonka locations to evaluate our performance improvement, physical layout, roles, equipment, processes, policies, and patient flow through the continuum of care. The site visit also extends beyond our surgery centers and operating rooms and may include intensive care units, medical/surgical floors, radiology and emergency departments.

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) was founded over a hundred years ago with the goal of improving the quality of care for the surgical patient by setting high standards for surgical education and practice. This new verification is based on other nationally recognized ACS programs that have set the highest standard of care. By joining this elite group of Level I Children’s Surgery Centers, Children’s will be contributing to the innovation of pediatric surgery and post-surgery care for children.