MDNews - West Virginia

WVU HEALTHCARE BARIATRICS EARNS NATIONAL ACCREDITATION FROM AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS The Bariatric Surgery Center at WVU Healthcare's Ruby Memorial Hospital, with its team approach to treating severe obesity, has been accredited as a Level 1 facility under the Bariatric Surgery Center Network (BSCN) Accreditation Program of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). The accreditation demonstrates WVU Healthcare's commit - ment to delivering the highest-quality care for its bariatric surgery patients. To earn the accreditation, WVU Healthcare met the essential criteria that ensure its ability to support a bariatric surgical care program and the institutional performance require - ments outlined by the BSCN Accreditation Standards. Accredited bariatric surgery centers provide both the hospital resources necessary for optimal care of morbidly obese patients and the support and resources nec - essary to address the entire spectrum of care and needs of bariatric patients, both pre- and postoperatively. WVU Bariatrics offers a comprehensive, surgical weight-loss program with a focus on pre-surgery education and postoperative success. Regular follow-up appointments and monthly support groups help patients. A team of physicians, dietitians, clinical psychol - ogists, physician assistants and nurses work with each patient before, during and after the surgery to ensure the best care. Bariatric surgery centers accredited under ACS BSCN program standards are part of the Metabolic Bariatric Surgery Accreditation Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP), administered by the ACS. ACS BSCN accredi - tation is awarded in categories, each with its own criteria that must be met. Facilities undergo a site visit by an experienced bariatric surgeon, who reviews the facilities' structure, process, and data quality. Because optimal surgical care requires documentation using reliable outcomes measures, accred - ited bariatric surgery centers are required to report their outcomes data to the MBSAQIP Data Registry Platform. WVU CANCER CENTER STUDY FOCUSES ON PROMISING NEW LUNG CANCER TREATMENT A clinical research study at the WVU Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center offers hope to patients with advanced early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. Alexander Chi, MD, Assistant Professor in the WVU Department of Radiation Oncology, is leading the study, which involves stereotac - tic ablative radiothera- py (SABR) — a new and increasingly utilized radiation therapy used to treat early-stage non-small cell lung cancer and isolated recurrent non-small cell lung cancer. Dr. Chi says SABR has already been proven successful in treating early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. His current study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of escalated doses of SABR for lung cancer patients with more advanced early-stage lung cancer. "It is very possible that the escalated doses of SABR will be able to cure the disease in 80 percent of the patients," he says. "In the remaining 20 percent, whose cancer is likely to recur beyond the chest wall, SABR will still help delay the cancer's spread." A second purpose of the study is to establish a set of potential predictive biomarkers in blood and tumor tissue to identify patients who would benefit from high-dose SABR alone and those at high risk for lung cancer recurrence who will need additional chemotherapy. "The results of this research study will contribute to strategies aimed at individualizing treatments for patients with non-small cell lung cancer," Dr. Chi says. RUBY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL'S ED FINDS SUCCESS WITH VERTICAL CARE To help improve patient wait times in the emergency department, WVU Healthcare has begun a new program called "vertical care," with the goal of keeping beds available for patients who must lie down to receive treatment, while accelerating the care of those who are able to remain upright. This has reduced wait times and occurrences of patients leaving without being seen. After being called from the main waiting room, patients who can stay in a vertical or upright position go through the intake process, during which a mid-level provider or supervised resident does a prompt evaluation and initiates care. During this 30- to 60-minute intake process, nurses are responsible for secondary triage, assessment and completion of orders. Following the intake process, patients go to the results-pending waiting room, where they await their results and the effect of therapies for no more than two hours. When the work-up is complete, a provider and the patient privately discuss all findings and the discharge plan. The emergency department is open 24/7. Vertical care is available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.–3 a.m. Those tend to be the busiest hours for the emergency department, and having vertical care available helps offset patient volumes in the main department. ■ Alexander Chi, MD LOCAL NEWS 1 4 | West Virginia MD NEWS ■ M D N E W S . CO M

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