Main content
At Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone, we are committed to providing the highest-quality, safest medical care. Our work is driven by these foundational beliefs:
We are a Level 1 Children’s Surgery Center, as verified by the American College of Surgeons (ACS). We are one of only two children’s hospitals in New York State to attain this highest surgical verification. The ACS designation recognizes our ability to offer all types of surgery and reflects our commitment to provide safe, quality surgical care. We also participate in the Pediatric National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), which demonstrates our commitment to the highest-quality children’s surgical care. Both distinctions are results of our ability to achieve excellent surgical outcomes in all specialties of children’s surgery. Surgery for children takes place at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital—34th Street.
We recognize that children and families are essential partners in our safety and quality efforts, a mission supported by Sala Institute for Child and Family Centered Care.
This partnership is evident at the bedside, where we include parents in Family-Centered Rounds and nursing shift reports. These key safety practices are designed to ensure that parents understand and are engaged in treatment planning. We also encourage you to ask questions, share how your child feels or responds to certain medications or treatments, and provide other information specific to your child. Your input, observations, and participation help us keep your child as safe as possible.
“Partnering with children and families is key to assuring we provide safe, compassionate, and exceptional care.”
Arun Chopra, MD, Chief of Service at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital
Our commitment to partnership is also evident at the systems level as we consult about new programs and initiatives with our Sala Family Advisory Council, which includes parents whose children receive care here, and our Sala Youth Advisory Council, which is made up of teen patients.
Through our Safety Coach Program, staff serve as peer mentors to observe their colleagues throughout their shift and provide coaching and positive reinforcement about safety practices. Coaches encourage their peers to effectively use standardized safety practices and behaviors, such as speaking up, asking questions, and communicating their concerns to further advance our culture of safety. When everyone feels comfortable escalating concerns and asking questions, it is an opportunity to create a safer environment for all.
Our commitment to the highest-quality care and safety is evident in many ways. As a committed member of the Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety, an international network of children’s hospitals, we are proud to work in collaboration with children’s hospitals across the United States and Canada to create a universally safe environment for all children. We believe that our focus on safety and our efforts to eliminate preventable harm lead to the best possible outcomes for the children in our care.
“It’s deeply moving to know how much dedication there is to our children’s health and safety above all.”
Lwam, Family Advisory Council Member and Mother of Sloane
Our commitment to safety has been affirmed by Solutions for Patient Safety, which recognizes our achieving the performance targets in the most-common serious patient harm categories. Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital, one of nearly 150 children’s hospitals in the United States and Canada in the network, is committed to creating a universally safe environment for all children, employees, and staff.
As part of our role with Solutions for Patient Safety, we also participate in pioneer groups that look at ways to reduce harm through innovation. This includes ways to limit unplanned extubations and reduce patient harm associated with race and ethnicity, leading to more equitable health outcomes.
Our teams, made up of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals, partner with parents to prevent the most common risks that may affect children who are in the hospital. Such risks include the following:
We also participate in numerous national initiatives to improve health outcomes for children. Our efforts encompass a wide range of conditions and treatments affecting children, including the following:
To learn more about patient safety and quality, talk with a member of your child’s care team.
