Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center Achieves Accreditation by SRC

Press Release:

Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center (SNVMC) recently achieved accreditation from SRC – Surgical Review Corporation – as a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology and Robotic Surgery. This accreditation recognizes SNVMC’s commitment and high standard of delivery of quality patient care and safety.

Status as an accredited Center of Excellence means that SNVMC has met nationally and internationally recognized standards. Not all hospitals and surgeons seek accreditation; not all that undergo the rigorous inspection process are granted accreditation.

SNVMC is the first Sentara hospital to have earned this accreditation.

“It’s important that the people in our community know of our dedication and commitment to providing the highest level of surgical services in Northern Virginia,” said SNVMC President Jeff Joyner. “Earning accreditation as a Center of Excellence by SRC is a reflection of the commitment to excellence across our hospital and the entire surgical team.”

Health care facilities and surgeons seeking an SRC accreditation undergo an extensive assessment and inspection process to ensure the applicant meets SRC’s proven standards and requirements. These requirements include surgical volumes, facility equipment, clinical pathways and standardized operating procedures, an emphasis on patient education and continuous quality assessment. Inspectors educate staff in the accredited departments on best practices to help an organization improve its care and services.

“We’re proud to recognize Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center for its commitment to advancing and providing quality care for all patients,” said Gary M. Pratt, CEO of SRC. “This accreditation signals that this facility is among the best in this specialty and is dedicated to delivering the highest level of care possible.”

Benefits of Robotic Surgery

SNVMC benefits from having the state-of-the-art da Vinci® robotic surgical system in use. This is a multi-armed precision tool that is used to perform gynecological and general surgery cases The device’s precision tools and a tiny lighted high-resolution camera are inserted through inch-long incisions, which contributes to quicker recovery for patients with less post-surgical pain.

The surgeon operates the system from a console near the operating table, looking through a viewer that magnifies the surgical site to ten times what the human eye can see.

In a Sentara Health Bites informational video, “Benefits of the daVinci® Robot in Gynecologic Surgery,” gynecology surgeon Alf K. Adler explains, “The term robotic surgery is very misleading to people. It’s not the robot doing the surgery. The surgeon is in control of the system. Many of our patients are able to go back to their homes the same day.”

Dr. Adler outlines other benefits to robotic surgery:

• Incisions are smaller with less scaring [sic]
• Bleeding is less
• Pain is significantly less
• Incidence of infection and other complications are much lower
• Recovery is phenomenally quicker

From minimally invasive surgical procedures to highly complex in-patient surgeries, Sentara’s board-certified surgeons provide a full range of procedures. To learn more, visit www.Sentara.com/surgery.