Marin General Hospital Earns Blue Distinction Care Designation for Quality in Knee and Hip Replacement and Spine Surgeries
National awards program recognizes hospital for outstanding specialty care
GREENBRAE, CA — Marin General Hospital announced today that it has been recognized as a Blue Distinction Center for Knee and Hip Replacement and Spine Surgeries by Blue Shield of California. The recognition acknowledges Marin General Hospital has met Blue Shield of California’s robust selection criteria based on objective measures that were developed with input from the medical community.
The Blue Distinction Specialty Care Program nationally recognizes facilities for providing high-quality specialty care that results in better patient safety and health outcomes. The program helps patients find quality providers for their specialty care needs, while encouraging health care professionals to improve the care they deliver.
“Being recognized as a Blue Distinction Center for our expertise in delivering outstanding specialty care is an honor for Marin General Hospital. Patients have more power of choice than ever before when it comes to selecting a health care provider, and we are focused on the promise to deliver care adhering to the highest standards,” said Marin General Hospital Chief Executive Officer Lee Domanico. “This recognition celebrates the strides the hospital is making to ensure our community and patients are treated with highly personalized and effective care they expect and deserve.”
Spinal surgeries are one of the most frequent types of elective surgeries in the United States. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, there were more than 465,000 spinal fusion operations in the U.S. in 2011, a procedure commonly done in the lumbar region of the lower back to treat back pain.
Marin General Hospital’s spine surgery program is part of the comprehensive neurological and spine care offered through its Spine & Brain Institute—a program the hospital created in collaboration with Mt. Tam Spine Center and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Neurosurgery. The Institute offers single-point access to highly specialized care performed by fellowship-trained physicians taking a multidisciplinary approach to spinal care while working with patients to find the least-disruptive procedures.
In addition, knee and hip replacement procedures are among the fastest growing medical treatments in the U.S., according to studies published in the June 2014 Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Marin General Hospital’s joint replacement program offers a wide range of care, including full and partial knee replacement, both posterior and anterior hip replacement, shoulder replacement, and ankle replacement.
For more information about the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program, please visit http://www.bcbs.com/why-bcbs/blue-distinction/.
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Blue Distinction Centers (BDC) met overall quality measures for patient safety and outcomes, developed with input from the medical community. A Local Blue Plan may require additional criteria for facilities located in its own service area; for details, contact your Local Blue Plan. Blue Distinction Centers+ (BDC+) also met cost measures that address consumers’ need for affordable health care. Each facility’s cost of care is evaluated using data from its Local Blue Plan. Facilities in CA, ID, NY, PA, and WA may lie in two Local Blue Plans’ areas, resulting in two evaluations for cost of care; and their own Local Blue Plans decide whether one or both cost of care evaluation(s) must meet BDC+ national criteria. National criteria for BDC and BDC+ are displayed on bcbs.com. Individual outcomes may vary. For details on a provider’s in-network status or your own policy’s coverage, contact your Local Blue Plan and ask your provider before making an appointment. Neither Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association nor any Blue Plans are responsible for non-covered charges or other losses or damages resulting from Blue Distinction or other provider finder information or care received from Blue Distinction or other providers.
