News Releases

March 17, 2010

Mercy Resumes Complex Spinal Surgery

Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City has lifted a temporary suspension on complex spinal surgeries after an internal study concluded that it serves the community’s best interests to offer such procedures.

Mercy’s leaders confirmed in mid-January that the hospital would temporarily suspend spinal fusion surgeries that were “level five” or greater. The medical center did continue to offer level one through level four procedures through the two-month period that it studied the more complicated surgeries.

“We worked closely with our physician partners to undertake a mission discernment process that examined appropriate stewardship of our God-given resources while also representing the best interests of our patients,” said Bob Peebles, Mercy’s president and CEO. “At the end of that analysis, we could clearly see that it is in the best interest of the Siouxland regional community to perform such complicated surgeries at Mercy.”

Peebles emphasized that the temporary suspension of complex spinal surgeries had nothing to do with the quality of Mercy’s outcomes or patient safety.

“Mercy is nationally recognized in orthopedics, and our post-surgical outcomes for multi-level spinal fusion procedures are outstanding,” he explained. “However, these procedures do require many more resources and a higher level of care. We just wanted to pause for a time to work with our physician partners to ask, ‘Are we making best use of the resources entrusted to us?’”

“We also considered whether or not Mercy – or even Sioux City itself – is the appropriate setting for these types of procedures,” Peebles added.

The hospital CEO acknowledged the involvement of several physician partners in the feasibility study.

“In the spirit of true partnership and collaboration, highly skilled orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons gave us valuable input in what was a very deliberate, patient-centered process,” Peebles stated. “As a result of that process, we have not only decided that it is in the best interest of our patients and communities to offer spinal fusion surgeries of level five or greater, but there is also an opportunity to further develop a world-class program that would make Mercy and Sioux City a regional referral center for such complex surgeries.”

“Given Mercy’s exemplary clinical outcomes and the high degree of physician involvement in sustaining an outstanding orthopedic surgery program, we have a very solid foundation for an extraordinary center of excellence.”

Spinal fusion surgery is a complex back surgery procedure in which two or more vertebrae are fused together so that no individual movement occurs in those particular vertebral levels. The number of “levels” cited refers to the number of vertebrae that the surgeon is joining together.

Surgeons undertake such procedures to correct spinal instability, vertebral fractures, scoliosis, spondylolisthesis, lordosis, kyphosis, and other serious problems.

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