ALPENA — MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena is one of the first 28 hospitals in the world to become verified by the American College of Surgeons Quality Verification Program. The ACS QVP Standards provide a proven, standardized method for establishing, measuring, and improving a hospital’s quality infrastructure across all surgical departments.

The inaugural group of QVP hospitals includes three international hospitals, two in Japan and one in Australia, and 25 U.S. hospitals. The first group of hospitals verified by ACS QVP includes a variety of hospital types and sizes, such as community, large and mid-size academic, public safety-net, military, and small/rural, among others. MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena, serving Northeast Michigan, met the criteria to be verified as an American College of Surgeons QVP Focused Hospital. It was the only hospital in Michigan to be recognized by the ACS QVP.

Under the ACS QVP Focused designation, MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena has demonstrated an active commitment to establishing a surgery-wide quality infrastructure that has been implemented in at least two surgical departments and will continue broader implementation across all surgical specialties.

“QVP takes a wholistic approach to improving surgical care in hospitals,” said Dr. Clifford Y. Ko, director of the ACS Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care. “It looks at surgery overall, and not just one specific specialty, so all surgical patients benefit when their hospital is verified for this quality program by the America College of Surgeons.”

He continued, “QVP brings together everyone involved in surgery in the hospital and helps them develop their own specific improvement journeys to improve patient care and the overall quality of a hospital. The staff at each verified hospital should be commended for their dedication and commitment in achieving QVP verification. Now that we have this first network of 28 hospitals verified, their surgical teams will be able to learn from each other and teach others how to embark on this quality journey.”

“Having our Medical Center received an elite recognition such as this is testament to the the culture of safety and quality we work so hard on each and every day for our patients,” said Mike Erickson, president, MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena. “The work that Dr. Puls and his team have done to obtain this verification from the American College of Surgeons solidifies that our surgical program is the highest quality in our region, which is of great benefit to the communities we serve.”

As an ACS QVP hospital, MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena received an in-depth assessment at the hospital and specialty levels. The assessment includes customized, actionable recommendations, such as how to engage everyone from hospital leadership to frontline providers to establish a generative safety and quality culture. ACS QVP provides the tools for QVP hospitals to develop a standardized approach to surgical care to help reduce complications, minimize waste, and increase the value of surgical care for their patients.

ACS QVP is based on 12 program standards, outlined in the Optimal Resources for Surgical Quality and Safety 2021 ACS QVP Standards manual. The ACS QVP standards are adapted from core elements of the Optimal Resources for Surgical Quality and Safety, or “Red Book.” The program builds on the college’s long-standing commitment to surgical quality by using principles gleaned from experience working with the roughly 3,000 hospitals that participate in ACS Quality Programs. The key principles of ACS QVP are driven by data surveillance along with standardized processes and systems to find, fix, and prevent problems to improve the quality and safety of surgical patient care.

For a full list of inaugural ACS QVP hospitals, visit https://bit.ly/3I5aLxz.

To learn more about the Medical Center in Alpena, visit www.mymichigan.org/alpena.