Accrediting agency recognizes Upstate for its hip and knee-replacement program

ONONDAGA, N.Y. — Upstate University Hospital announced it has earned certification as a “center of excellence” for hip and knee replacement from Milford, Ohio–based DNV GL Healthcare Inc. (DNV), a hospital-accreditation organization.

It earned a similar certification as a “comprehensive stroke center” from the same organization in early 2015.

Upstate said it is the first hospital in New York to earn the DNV designation for a hip and knee-replacement program.

The certification program recognizes “excellence” in orthopedic surgery “within the scope” of hip and knee replacement and related procedures.

The certification refers to the orthopedic service located on the Community campus at 4900 Broad Road in Onondaga, where the hip and knee replacement surgeries are performed, Upstate said.

To earn the hip and knee replacement designation for excellence, DNV surveyors performed a “rigorous” on-site review of the facility. They examined patient records, patient outcomes, interviewed staff, and visited surgery and imaging locations and other patient-care areas.

Upstate cites the Rosemont, Illinois–based American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons which contends hip and knee-replacements are among the “most popular surgeries performed today,” and are expected to be “in demand even more in coming years.”

Nationally, orthopedic surgeons performed more than 371,000 total hip replacements in 2014, up nearly 30 percent since 2010, when surgeons performed nearly 292,000 procedures, per Upstate.

Total knee-replacement procedures in 2014 numbered 680,886, up 7.5 percent since 2010, it added.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com