The Applicant Hospital
The applicant Hospital/Institute should be a clinical establishment having requisite infrastructure of minimum prescribed beds providing comprehensive OPD and/or IPD based medical services in a single campus. NABH is preferred not mandatory. Required standard operation theatre(instruments gadgets for safe spine surgery, anaesthesia trolley and back -up facilities), indoor facility, in house or collaborated investigation facilities, etc are recommended.
Faculty
The applicant department should have at least 01 full time consultants.
- Spine Consultant: Should have a minimum of 10 years of experience after qualifying MS/ DNB Orthopaedics/ MCH Neurosurgery with special training /fellowship in spine surgery. Preferably doing majority spine work for at least 5 years.
- The qualification in the specialty should be a recognised qualification as per the provisions of IMC/ MCI Act.
Proposed faculties in the applicant department shall be required to submit their biodata with supportive documents. All dedicated spine surgeons have to be SAG members.
Patient load:
Details of surgical case load shall be required for last 03 years in terms of major, minor, emergency and day care surgeries performed by the department. Spectrum of diagnosis available in the department for last 03 years shall be required to be furnished in the application form.
Outpatient clinic
A minimum of two weekly outpatient clinics for spine diseases is conducted, which ensures preoperative evaluation and post-operative follow-up according to internal standards. Minimum Out patient workload expected: 300 per month (Preferably >500)
Amount of surgical interventions
SAG requests a minimum amount of 150-300 surgical cases per year. Furthermore it is required to operate on at least 3 days/week. As no single centre can cover all pathologies SAG offers the below case number guidelines. An applicant for SAG Centre of excellence needs to fulfil at least in three pathologies the minimal amounts given.
A Degenerative Diseases 100
B Tumor Metastasis 10
C Inflammatory /Infective Diseases 10
D Injuries (Trauma) 20
E Deformity Spine Center 10
Minimum number of major spine surgeries expected: 15-20 per month (Preferably >50)
Research and Education
SAG Centres are expected to contribute actively to the development of spine surgery and/or to pass on spine related knowledge and skills. As contribution are understood: Written scientific publication in books or scientific papers, lectures, communications at congresses, participation of staff as faculty/chairperson in educational courses. The faculty in the applicant department (collectively) should have a minimum of 5 research publications in indexed journals to their credit. Preferred but not mandatory.
SAG Fellowship
Different consultants can become the teaching guide for SAG spine fellowship when multiple consultants are present in department. To be able to continuously host fellowships the applicant needs to be evaluated by the fellows. The overall rating has to be > 75% satisfaction.
Re-certification
All SAG Centers of excellence are certified for three years. At the end of this period a new application needs to be submitted in order to retain the certification Initial application can be sent before annual meeting of SAG every year to email id. spineassociationofgujarat@gmail.com