Levels of care for hospitals performing pediatric surgery

The American College of Surgeons has published guidelines on the OPTIMAL resources that hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers should have available if they are going to perform surgery on infants and children.  There are three levels: basic, advanced, and comprehensive.  Each of these levels is defined carefully, as are a number of related terms, such as what does “pediatric surgeons 24/7” mean exactly?  Table 3 in the article is particularly interesting, in that it provides a side-by-side comparison of the three levels with an itemization of the resources that should be provided at each level.

Please note that this is NOT a list of surgical equipment and supplies.  Rather it is a list of the types of medical specialists (for example pediatric radiologist) and of facilities (for example Level IV NICU).

Sources:

THIS IS THE FULL DOCUMENT:  Task Force for Children’s Surgical Care.  Optimal resources for children’s surgical care in the United States.  Journal of the American College of Surgeons.  218(3):479-487, Mar. 2014.  Click here for access to the publisher’s website: http://www.journalacs.org/article/S1072-7515(13)01194-0/abstract  Posted by AHA Resource Center (312) 422-2003, rc@aha.org

NEWS ITEM: Surgeons, anesthesiologists develop resource standards for optimal pediatric care.  Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons.  99(4):57-58, Apr. 2014.  Click here for access to this article:  http://bulletin.facs.org/2014/04/surgeons-anesthesiologists-develop-resource-standards-for-optimal-pediatric-care/

NEW RESOURCE: American College of Surgeons. (2015). Optimal resources for children’s surgical care 2015. Click here: https://www.facs.org/~/media/files/quality%20programs/acs%20csv_standardsmanual.ashx

Posted by AHA Resource Center (312) 422-2003, rc@aha.org