(New Brunswick, NJ) – Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), an RWJBarnabas Health facility, has earned its third consecutive Gold Seal of Approval® from The Joint Commission for Hip and Knee Replacement Disease-Specific Care Certification by demonstrating continuous compliance with its performance standards. The Gold Seal is a symbol of quality that reflects a health care organization’s commitment to providing safe and quality patient care.
The Joint Commission certification focuses on the pre-surgical orthopedic consultation to the intraoperative, hospital admission, rehabilitation activities, and follow-up visit with the orthopedic surgeon.
RWJUH underwent a rigorous onsite review on October 21. During the visit, a Joint Commission reviewer evaluated compliance with related certification standards including Clinical Information Management, Performance Measurement, Program Management, Supporting Self-Management, as well as Delivering and Facilitating Clinical Care.
The Joint Commission standards are developed in consultation with health care experts and providers, measurement experts and patients. The reviewer also conducted onsite observations and interviews.
“Disease-Specific Care Joint Replacement Program Certification recognizes health care organizations committed to fostering continuous quality improvement in patient safety and quality of care,” says Mark Pelletier, RN, MS, chief operating officer, Accreditation and Certification Operations, and chief nursing executive, The Joint Commission. “We commend RWJUH for using certification to reduce variation in its clinical processes and to strengthen its program structure and management framework for joint replacement patients.”
“This survey validates our Orthopedic team’s commitment to providing exceptional care in a safe environment,” said Bill Arnold, President and Chief Executive Officer of RWJUH. “Achieving this designation for the third consecutive survey validates the quality of our program and our team’s daily focus on returning our patients to active, healthy lives.”
“Our orthopedics and surgical teams take great pride in offering our patients a broad range of the most advanced surgical options to enhance their quality of life,” added David Harwood, MD, joint replacement surgeon at RWJUH and Clinical Associate Professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “Our patients are at the center of everything we do, so our team works tirelessly to not only meet but exceed national standards for quality and outcomes. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing our patients find relief for their pain and discomfort and regain the quality of life they enjoyed before.”
The RWJUH team underwent rigorous preparation for the site visit, including multi-disciplinary meetings with representatives across the many departments that contribute to care in orthopedics. The team holds monthly process review meetings to ensure continuous improvement of the program. This has yielded significant benefits to patients in terms of reduced length of stay in the hospital for hip and knee replacement, decreased complication rates and reduced use of opioids in the hospital following surgery. In fact, in 2021, more than 90% of hip and knee replacement patients went directly home upon discharge from RWJUH.
For more information, please visit The Joint Commission website.
About Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), a 614-bed RWJBarnabas Health Facility, is New Jersey’s largest academic medical center through its deep partnership with Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. RWJUH is the flagship Cancer Hospital of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Its other Centers of Excellence include cardiovascular care from minimally invasive heart surgery to transplantation, cancer care, stroke care, neuroscience, orthopedics, bariatric surgery and women’s and children’s care including The Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (www.bmsch.org). A Level 1 Trauma Center and the first designated Pediatric Trauma Center in the state, RWJUH’s New Brunswick campus serves as a national resource in its ground-breaking approaches to emergency preparedness.
Contact: Peter Haigney
RWJUH Public Relations
(732) 937-8568 Cell: (908) 227-9317