Pelham Medical Center receives Blue Distinction Center designation for quality in spine surgery.

Regardless if a patient has a spinal injury or needs spine surgery, members of Pelham Medical Center's clinical team are trained in the latest techniques to offer the best options for care.

These efforts resulted in BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina recognizing Pelham Medical Center as a Blue Distinction Center in spine surgery.

The Blue Distinction Centers for Specialty Care® program is a national designation awarded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies to medical facilities that have demonstrated expertise in delivering quality specialty care, which expanded recently to include more robust quality measures focused on improved patient health and safety.

Since 2006, consumers, medical providers and employers have relied on the Blue Distinction program to identify hospitals delivering quality care in bariatric surgery, cardiac care, complex and rare cancers, knee and hip replacements, spine surgery, and transplants. The selection criteria used to evaluate facilities were developed with input from the medical community, and include general quality and safety metrics plus program specific metrics. Pelham Medical Center is proud to have met the rigorous selection criteria set by the Blue Distinction Centers for Specialty Care program.

“Pelham Medical Center is already known for its excellence in orthopaedics,” said President of Pelham Medical Center, Tony Kouskolekas. “The Blue Distinction Center's recognition provides our orthopaedics team confirmation that we provide our patients with the best spine care in the region.”

Research confirms that the newly designated Blue Distinction Centers demonstrate better quality and improved outcomes for patients, with lower rates of complications and readmissions than their peers. The program provides consumers with tools to help them make better informed healthcare decisions. These results will also enable employers, working with their local Blue Plan, to tailor benefits to meet their individual quality objectives.