UC Davis Children's Hospital re-verified as Level I Children's Surgery Center by American College of Surgeons

(SACRAMENTO)

UC Davis Children’s Hospital has been re-verified as a Level I Children’s Surgery Center by the American College of Surgeons (ACS). The designation from the ACS Children’s Surgery Verification Quality Improvement Program focuses on the nation’s first and only multi-specialty standards of surgical care for pediatric patients. UC Davis Children's Hospital was the first hospital on the West Coast to earn this distinction.

UC Davis Children's Hospital has been re-verified a level I children's surgery center.
UC Davis Children's Hospital has been re-verified a level I children's surgery center.

The American College of Surgeons' Children's Surgery Verification program was developed 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 guidelines ensure that children needing surgery receive care from a multidisciplinary program with quality improvement and safety processes, data collection and appropriate resources for patients.

The level I verification -- the highest of three -- was first awarded to UC Davis Children’s Hospital in 2016 after an extensive site visit by an ACS team of surveyors. The survey team consisted of experienced children’s surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses who reviewed the hospital’s structure, processes and clinical outcomes data. 

“The transformation in facilities and surgical care services for children at UC Davis in the past five years has been nothing short of remarkable! The commitment to children's surgical care by our team is validated and verified by this recognition by the American College of Surgeons,” said Diana Farmer, chair and Pearl Stamps Stewart professor of the UC Davis Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. “It signifies to parents throughout California that they can be certain that the highest level of surgical care for their children in the country is found right here.”

To become a verified center, UC Davis Children’s Hospital met essential criteria for staffing, training, and facility infrastructure and protocols for care, ensuring its ability to appropriately care for children who are surgical patients. 

A Level I Children’s Surgery Center:

  • has specialty trained children’s surgeons in every discipline, who are able to care for newborns, children and teens
  • offers pediatric anesthesiologists who are available to provide round-the-clock care
  • provides dedicated operating rooms for children available 24 hours a day
  • participates in a national data registry that yields semiannual reports on the quality of its processes and outcomes, thus identifying opportunities for continuous quality improvement
  • trains future leaders in education and research 
  • leads the way in community service and outreach

About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational association of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to improve the quality of care for the surgical patient by setting high standards for surgical education and practice. The college has more than 82,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world.