{"id":143769,"date":"2025-07-16T22:30:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T02:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=143769"},"modified":"2025-07-16T22:30:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T02:30:03","slug":"lehigh-valley-hospital-cedar-crest-first-in-pa-to-earn-geriatric-surgery-verification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=143769","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Valley Hospital\u2013Cedar Crest First in Pa. to Earn Geriatric Surgery Verification"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN), part of Jefferson Health, better prepared to care for our region\u2019s elderly population<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lehigh Valley, Pa. (July 16, 2025) \u2013\u00a0Almost 17 percent of Pennsylvania\u2019s population is between the ages of 65 and 84. In fact, the national population is older in general, which has caused clinicians and hospital leaders to rethink how they deliver care.<\/p>\n

Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)\u2013Cedar Crest is at the forefront, receiving the Focused Excellence Geriatric Surgery Verification from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in May 2025, making it an official ACS Surgical Quality Partner. Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) is the first \u2013 and at this point, only \u2013 hospital in Pennsylvania to earn this distinction.<\/p>\n

\u201cLVHN is continually investing in the highest level of surgical care for our patients right here in the Lehigh Valley,\u201d says\u00a0Michael Pasquale, MD<\/a>, Physician in Chief,\u00a0Lehigh Valley Institute for Surgical Excellence<\/a>. \u201cThis current geriatric surgery verification truly verifies our commitment to an aging population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going the extra mile<\/strong><\/p>\n

Geriatric surgery, like surgery for any special population, brings into play its own set of considerations. That\u2019s why LVHN has introduced a multidisciplinary approach to geriatric surgeries, involving discussions with a cross section of medical experts who understand the differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a group discussion with all members of the care team \u2013 from geriatrics and surgery to nursing and pharmacy \u2013 gives us the complete picture so we can decide the best way forward,\u201d says\u00a0Rovinder Sandhu, MD<\/a>, President-Elect of LVHN\u2019s Medical Staff and Deputy Physician in Chief, Quality and Patient Safety, Lehigh Valley Institute for Surgical Excellence.<\/p>\n

Patient-centered discussion was one of 30 standards needed for the ACS verification.\u00a0Christina Holub<\/a>, certified registered nurse practitioner, LVPG General, Bariatric and Trauma Surgery\u20131240 Cedar Crest, oversaw the verification process, which renews every three years. \u201cWe are also gearing up for a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) quality initiative that will renew every year,\u201d she says. \u201cCMS is mandatory, but we went above and beyond by getting the voluntary ACS verification.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holub says other requirements for verification were certain kinds of research, advance care planning and vulnerability screenings, among others. The team also had to make sure facilities were age friendly, with seating areas for family members, readable clocks, grab bars and nonskid flooring.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur effort shows what kind of team we have at LVH\u2013Cedar Crest,\u201d Dr. Pasquale says. \u201cThis added accreditation is important for our patients and their quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new perspective on care<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Sandhu explains that geriatric surgery quality improvements are now embedded across disciplines. \u201cAll the departments are doing this because we\u2019re all caring for elderly patients,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are making sure we\u2019re approaching care in a safe manner and keeping these age-friendly initiatives at the top of our mind. This helps patients recover better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also boosting patients\u2019 recovery is a \u201cprehab\u201d program. Elderly patients who will be undergoing surgery are prepped with whatever is needed to get them stronger for their procedure and afterward. It could include physical therapy or nutritional support.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many patients worry about being too frail for an operation,\u201d Dr. Sandhu says. \u201cNow we can put them through our program, discuss all the issues with our team and understand what surgery will mean for their life. They might decide they don\u2019t want to go through that. Or, that they do want to. They have an informed choice \u2013 and that\u2019s rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

About Jefferson\u00a0<\/strong>
\nLehigh Valley Health Network is now proudly part of Jefferson Health. Nationally ranked, Jefferson, which is principally located in the Greater Philadelphia region, Lehigh Valley and northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, is reimagining health care and higher education to create unparalleled value. Jefferson is more than 65,000 people strong, dedicated to providing the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients; making our communities healthier and stronger; preparing tomorrow’s professional leaders for 21st-century careers; and creating new knowledge through basic\/programmatic, clinical and applied research.\u00a0Thomas Jefferson University<\/a>, home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Jefferson College of Nursing, and the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce, dates back to 1824 and today comprises 10 colleges and three schools offering\u00a0200+<\/strong>\u00a0undergraduate and graduate programs to more than\u00a08,300 students.<\/strong>\u00a0Jefferson Health<\/a>, nationally ranked as one of the top 15 not-for-profit health care systems in the country and the largest provider in the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley areas, serves patients through millions of encounters each year at\u00a032 hospitals<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0more than 700 outpatient and urgent care locations<\/strong>\u00a0throughout the region.\u00a0Jefferson Health Plans<\/a>\u00a0is a not-for-profit managed health care organization providing a broad range of health coverage options in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for more than 35 years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nPriscilla Turbitt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN), part of Jefferson Health, better prepared to care for our region\u2019s elderly population Lehigh Valley, Pa. (July 16, 2025) \u2013\u00a0Almost 17 percent of Pennsylvania\u2019s population … Continue reading Lehigh Valley Hospital\u2013Cedar Crest First in Pa. to Earn Geriatric Surgery Verification<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/acs.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143769"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/143770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}