Sanford Medical Centers in Bismarck, Fargo and Sioux Falls have received the following designations:

Knee and Hip Replacement
Blue Distinction Centers for Knee and Hip Replacement provide comprehensive inpatient knee and hip replacement services, including total knee replacement and total hip replacement surgeries. Sanford’s Fargo, Sioux Falls and Bismarck regions all received quality and value designations in this category.

Spine Surgery
Blue Distinction Centers for Spine Surgery provide comprehensive inpatient spine surgery services, including discectomy, fusion and decompression procedures. Sanford’s Fargo, Sioux Falls and Bismarck regions all received quality designations in this category. The Fargo and Bismarck regions also received value designations.

Blue Distinction Centers® are part of a national designation program that recognizes those facilities that demonstrate expertise in delivering quality specialty care -- safely, efficiently, and cost effectively. The designation, historically focused solely on quality, is expanding to further distinguish these quality designated facilities with an additional and more selective value designation.

Beginning with the Spine Surgery and the Knee and Hip Replacement programs, the Blue Distinction Centers® program awards qualifying hospitals either a “quality” designation or a “value” designation. The basics of each designation are as follows:

Quality designation = Meets quality-focused criteria that emphasize patient safety and outcomes. Value designation = Meets both quality-focused criteria that emphasize patient safety and outcomes, as well as cost of care measures.

Quality remains key. Only those facilities that first meet Blue Distinction's quality criteria are considered for any designation. Blue Distinction's goal is to help consumers find both quality and value for their specialty care needs, on a consistent basis, while encouraging healthcare professionals to improve the overall quality and delivery of care nationwide.

About Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
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