Case Study: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania – Cedar Avenue 2023 Achievement Award

An Innovative Approach to Providing High-Quality Surgical Care for a Safety-Net Hospital in a Hub-and-Spoke Relationship 
Living The Vision – Honorable Mention

The Goal

To prevent the community’s loss of numerous essential medical resources, including an emergency department, psychiatric and detoxification facilities, and medical and surgical inpatient services, when a long-standing urban hospital in a historically marginalized neighborhood was slated to close due to financial insolvency.

Intervention

The University of Pennsylvania Health System leadership, in partnership with the Department of Surgery, created an innovative surgical access model in which Advanced Practice Providers and senior surgical resident moonlighters, supported by surgical faculty, provide full-time in-person surgical consult coverage and surgical care coordination at the safety net hospital. Overall, the team’s efforts promote access to high-quality, equitable surgical care for an at-risk population on an emergent and elective basis through on-site assessment and advocacy. 

Results

The development of the on-site surgical access team at the safety-net hospital has allowed for efficient and coordinated care for patients with surgical needs. Major benefits:

• Improved timeliness and accuracy of surgical assessment.
• Reduction of transfer delays for patients requiring emergent surgical interventions.
• Successfully coordinated outpatient surgical follow-up for approximately 125 patients.

When patients are deemed to have non-urgent surgical concerns that require outpatient follow-up, the on-site surgical access team facilitates the appropriate subspecialist appointments and connects patients to surgical navigators who can address barriers to obtaining the recommended outpatient care.

 

 

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Topics: Quality Initiatives

Revision Date: 2/28/2023

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