Do Surgery Centers in Northern Virginia Provide Emergency Care?

The Inova Fairfax medical campus in Falls Church is home to three outpatient surgery centers providing personalized attention to patients. Learn more about emergency care provided by these centers.

Do Surgery Centers in Northern Virginia Provide Emergency Care?

The Inova Fairfax medical campus in Falls Church, Virginia, is home to three distinct outpatient surgery centers. Our teams of expert staff provide personalized attention to patients, offering a range of services from prevention to palliative care. The new seven-story center offers direct and easy access to treatment centers upon arrival at the health system's main campus. The outpatient ward houses HCV Health's outpatient surgery, imaging, pharmacy, laboratory, endoscopy and physical therapy services.

The new center also has 26,000 square feet dedicated exclusively to women's health. Developed by a female-led medical team, the suite of women's health services includes obstetrics and gynecology, maternal-fetal medicine, women's health and wellness (including aging and menopause), genetics, breast health, urology, cardiology, advanced radiology, and vascular diagnostics. Inova's primary location is the Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, a 923-bed medical center serving Northern Virginia, the Washington DC metropolitan area and beyond. Bill Prentice, executive director of the Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs), declined to comment on individual cases but stated that he had not seen any data to suggest that surgery centers are less safe than hospitals. Nancy Epstein, chief of neurosurgery and spinal care at Winthrop Hospital at New York University, expressed her concern about surgery centers performing delicate procedures near the spinal cord, trachea and esophagus in a single day. However, a Medicare inspection report describing the event says that none of those who were on call that night at the Northern California surgical center knew what to do.

Some states such as Pennsylvania and Rhode Island have prohibited some surgery centers from operating on patients with an anesthesia risk score of 4.Kaiser Permanente is proud to partner with VHC Health — Virginia Hospital Center due to its commitment to superior healthcare and sophisticated services for patients. In addition, in lawsuits across the country doctors at surgery centers have been accused of taking risks with patients. However, attorneys who sue the centers and examine their internal records say they often observe deadly delays in care. In response to lawsuits across the country, surgery centers have argued that deadly complications were among the known results of such surgeries. And there may be many more because some states such as New York, Illinois and Florida don't disclose details about deaths in surgical centers. Abbygail's parents are now wondering if the surgery center should have ever been willing to treat their daughter.

In at least 25 cases surgical centers opened their doors to sick and frail patients who died after simple procedures such as tonsillectomies, retinal repairs or colonoscopies as found by KHN and USA TODAY Network. The safety grade assigns ratings to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harm among the patients under their care. The family filed a lawsuit alleging that the center and the anesthesiologist made a mistake by giving the boy an anesthetic that contained a warning about the risk of cardiac arrest in young children.

Stephanie Weiker
Stephanie Weiker

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