Intermountain St Mary’s Regional First Community Hospital in Nation to Receive Vascular Verification

Intermountain Health St. Mary’s Regional Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado is now among five hospitals in the United States – and the only community hospital – to be verified by the American College of Surgeons and the Society for Vascular Surgery at their highest level of care (comprehensive inpatient) in their Vascular Verification Program.

The 346-bed Intermountain Health hospital on Colorado’s Western Slope was recognized for its vascular surgical quality, nursing care, patient and staff safety, timely patient access, education, and state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.

Vascular surgeons operate on arteries, veins and blood vessels in parts of the body such as the neck, arms, abdomen and legs. They treat conditions ranging from repairing damage due to physical trauma, to repairing blood vessels affected by smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes, to repairing varicose veins, or aneurysms. They help prevent strokes, amputation, and death.

The verification program is a national evidence-driven, standardized pathway for establishing and growing the quality improvement and clinical care infrastructure of vascular programs.

The Vascular Verification project required input from more than 30 members of the hospital care team including vascular surgeons, nurses, clinical leadership, and support staff. Spearheading the project was Tej Singh, MD, MBA, medical director of vascular surgery at Intermountain St. Mary’s Regional Hospital and a current participant in Harvard Medical School’s Surgical Leadership Program.

“This is truly a great honor for St. Mary’s Hospital to be recognized as one of the first nationally verified programs. Kudos to all the doctors, nurses, and staff that worked to ensure its success,” said Dr. Bryan Johnson, president, Intermountain St. Mary’s Regional Hospital.

“We’re grateful to Dr. Singh for his instrumental work in building a high-quality vascular program and achieving vascular verification. These efforts include timely patient access and work with the vascular quality initiative registry, national accreditation, care compliance, surgical leadership, and mentoring,” said Ben Smalley, chief operating officer for St. Mary’s Regional Hospital. “Dr. Singh’s passion for vascular and endovascular care, and his team-based leadership have helped grow our program to deliver the highest-level of vascular care to our community.”

“This is truly a great honor for St. Mary’s. It places us on the national vascular surgery map and reflects our commitment to providing the best care for our patients in our 250-mile service area in Western Colorado,” said Dr. Singh “We developed our program around the guidelines to ensure we hit the highest national benchmarks of care, quality, safety, outcomes and education. I’m grateful and honored to work with so many fine clinicians delivering this national recognition which will result in the best vascular care for our patients.”

Pictured: Dr. Truc Ta, Dr. Tej Singh, and Dr. Justin Walpole Intermountain Health St. Mary’s Regional Hospital vascular surgery program.

About Intermountain Health

Headquartered in Utah with locations in six states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Health is a not-for-profit system of 34 hospitals, approximately 400 clinics, medical groups with some 4,600 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called Select Health with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For up-to-date information and announcements, please see the Intermountain Health newsroom at https://intermountainhealthcare.org/news.