Comments about patient safety activities:

Patient Safety is an integral part of our hospital program. We are currently evaluating, improving, and implementing systems of care to ensure patient safety. Our internal assessment of the 2003 National Patient Safety Goals indicates that we are currently in good compliance.

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Comments about Intensive Care Unit Physician Staffing:

In all of the ICUs, concurrent primary care involvement is encouraged. An intensivist care physician (medical or surgical) is available for consultative care while the patient is in the critical care setting. In two of these areas, housestaff also provide critical care support under the direction of the medical intensivist, cardiologist, or critical care surgeon.

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Comments about Infants with Congenital Anomalies:

We accept all neonates to our NICU as recommended by our neonatologists except those for whom we do not have appropriate sub-specialty support to manage the specified or complicating condition, or if the severity of condition exceeds our capabilities. Those patients are transferred to other institutions for further care. We participate with the Vermont Oxford Study. While we do not have a nurse practitioner or physician extender in our NICU available 24 hours/day, we do have an accredited pediatric residency program and our residents work directly and closely with our neonatologists 24 hours/day.

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Comments about Low Birthweight Infants:

We accept all neonates to our NICU as recommended by our neonatologists except those for whom we do not have appropriate sub-specialty support to manage the specified or complicating condition, or if the severity of condition exceeds our capabilities. Those patients are transferred to other institutions for further care. We participate with the Vermont Oxford Study. While we do not have a nurse practitioner or physician extender in our NICU available 24 hours/day, we do have an accredited pediatric residency program and our residents work directly and closely with our neonatologists 24 hours/day.

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Comments about Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair:

Patients who are at high risk for performance of this procedure are referred to a tertiary referral center.

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Comments about Percutaneous Coronary Interventions:

Currently, PCI can only be done in hospitals where elective open heart surgery is performed. We do not perform open heart surgery not related to trauma.

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Comments about Open Heart Surgery:

We do NOT perform elective open heart surgery. Our open heart surgeries were performed as part of our American College of Surgeons (ACS) verified Level I trauma services; the only one in the area.

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