VA ECHCS One of Only Three VA Medical Centers to Earn Geriatric Surgery Verification Recertification

The recertification for the program is a stringent process, comprised of 30 standards required for certification by the American College of Surgeons. The standards for recertification include quality improvement and safety processes, data collection, adherence to a regular verification process and more. 

“The Geriatric Surgery Verification Program is a set of standards to optimize surgical care for older patients,” said Dr. Teresa Jones, VA ECHCS section chief of general surgery and GSV program director. “They took a lot of evidence and collaboration by experts, and they made these 30 standards for hospitals to optimize a patients care throughout the perioperative hospital course—before surgery, during their hospitalization and afterwards.”

The 30 standards of GSV Program are used to identify vulnerabilities in older patients. These vulnerabilities range from cognition, nutrition, mobility, hearing, mental health and other areas older patients may not otherwise be immediately evaluated on during their hospital visit orafterwards. Based on the established standards, these patients are also monitored during their stay at the medical center by trained medical staff. 

“I make sure we meet those standards as an institution, both preoperative, in-patient and postoperatively,” said Amy Galvan, VA ECHCS surgical navigator and GSV coordinator. “As the coordinator, I also take care of the patients. I ask them all types of questions ranging from falls, to delirium risks, cognitive standards to just having a conversation about what their home and food situations are. I also provide them with some resources on geriatric syndromes that we worry about after they go home, like delirium, urinary incontinence, pressure injuries, loss of appetite and sudden onset of falls. If any of those things happen, those are things we want to know about. We want you to contact your surgical team or come back into the E.R.”

The GSV program significantly benefits VA ECHCS’ veterans who are 75 and older by reducing hospital re-admissions, lowering morbidity and improving surgical outcomes overall. 

According to the Journal of the American Colleges of Surgeons, more than half of all operations in the U.S. are performed on patients 65 years and older. Through the GSV program, they discovered that when assessing geriatric patients before, during and after surgery, the GSV program prompted personnel to assess any concerns from surgery that could potentially improve continuity and recovery results. 

"We are looking for vulnerabilities a lot of veterans take for granted—their nutrition, their mobility, their goals of care,” said Jones. “And I think having somebody advocate for them about those things that are so important, but we neglect because we’re doing so many things. These seemingly smaller things that we watch out for can change their outcomes for surgery. Also, having the health providers talk with each other about the patients throughout their care, and communicate, adds a lot to their overall hospitalization.”

With this recent recertification, RMR remains one of only three VA medical centers in the country to achieve verification, and one of just 30 facilities in the United States.

“I think it demonstrates our hospital and our leadership’s real commitment to improving the quality of care for our patients,” said Jones. “This is us taking the extra effort to compare ourselves to hospitals nationwide, not just the VA but other hospitals. Do we measure up? Are we providing the same, if not, better care than those other hospitals? And we know that, yes, we are. We’re making that extra effort because we know how important it is to improve their care.”

If veterans want to learn more about VA ECHCS commitment to an age-friendly health care system, or have any questions about the GSV program, they can visit the VA ECHCS Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center website.