Joint Replacement Program at South Nassau Communities Hospital Awarded Gold Seal of Approval

Oceanside, NY, May 09, 2012 --(PR.com)-- The Joint Commission has awarded its Gold Seal of Approval™ to South Nassau Communities Hospital’s Long Island Joint Replacement Institute™ (LIJRI) for its compliance and continuous dedication to the national standards for health care quality and safety as recommended by the Commission’s Disease-Specific Care Certification Program.

Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.

“This achievement is a direct result of an organization-wide commitment to attaining and maintaining the highest standards in safety, quality and service,” said Craig Levitz, MD, chair of orthopedic surgery at South Nassau. “Our patients and the communities we serve can be assured that our commitment to improving and raising our standards is enduring.” Dr. Levitz, as well as Bradley Gerber, MD, chief of total joint replacement surgery at South Nassau, and James Germano, MD, is board certified and specialty trained in joint replacement.

Launched in 2002, the Disease-Specific Care Certification Program evaluates clinical programs across the continuum of care. Certification requirements address three core areas: compliance with consensus-based national standards; effective use of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to manage and optimize care; and an organized approach to performance measurement and improvement activities.

“To earn the Gold Seal of Approval, a rigorous on-site survey was conducted by a Joint Commission expert surveyor, who evaluated the joint replacement institute for compliance with standards of care specific to the needs of our patients and families,” said Laura Righter, South Nassau’s administrative director for wound care, physical medicine and rehabilitation and cardiovascular/pulmonary rehabilitation services. Ms. Righter was instrumental in providing the administrative support and South Nassau’s preparation for the survey process.

South Nassau provides the continuum of orthopedic care through its Center for Advanced Orthopedics (CAO), which includes the LIJRI and South Nassau Shoulder Center. The CAO was established to meet the rapidly rising long-term need for full-service, specialized orthopedic care. Under the direction of Dr. Levitz, surgeons at the CAO use minimally invasive and image-guided surgical technology to repair musculoskeletal injuries as well as to perform joint replacement surgery.

Surgeons at LIJRI specialize in the latest advancements in total and partial knee and hip replacement techniques including custom-fitted total joint replacement, minimally invasive Birmingham Hip™ resurfacing (a revolutionary alternative to total hip replacement), the Uni-Knee™ partial knee replacement, and the mobile-bearing knee system. LIJRI was one of the first in United States to combine image-guided medical technology with minimally invasive knee replacement instrumentation to simplify total knee replacement surgery and significantly improve the short- and long-term patient benefits of the operation, including less scarring and faster healing.

Knee and shoulder injuries repaired at the CAO include torn cartilage and anterior cruciate, posterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in the knee and instability, impingement, rotator cuff or labrum tears and recurrent dislocations in the shoulder. Physicians also specialize in adult reconstruction, foot and ankle injuries, pediatric orthopedics, hand and upper extremities, meniscus cartilage transplantation and Carticel™ Therapy to correct recurring knee cartilage injuries.

The CAO’s orthopedic spine surgeons use a range of patient-centered, minimally-invasive surgical approaches that provide short- and long-term relief from debilitating, painful back problems. These approaches include lumbar disc replacement (which is prescribed for patients with one diseased disc who have not improved after six months of non-invasive treatment), kyphoplasty (a procedure that corrects degenerative disc diseases such as vertebral compression fractures) and XLIF (eXtreme Lateral Interbody Fusion procedure, which needs just two small incisions to correct degenerative disc problems such as recurrent disc herniation and degenerative scoliosis).