ChristianaCare and Delaware Neurosurgical Group, PA, Announce Joint Venture Partnership for Comprehensive Spine Surgery Center

Partnership positions Center for Spine Surgery to be preferred provider in Delaware

Wilmington, Del, Feb. 25, 2021 — ChristianaCare, one of the most dynamic health systems in the mid-Atlantic region, and Delaware Neurosurgical Group, PA, a preeminent neurosurgical practice in our community for over 35 years, today announced a joint venture partnership to develop a comprehensive, state-of-the-art spine surgery center at the Roxana Cannon Arsht Surgicenter on ChristianaCare’s Wilmington Hospital campus.

The new center will focus on delivering high-quality care and an unparalleled experience for patients who need spine surgery, with hyper-efficient operations that enable the delivery of spine care at affordable costs.

The name of the new partnership will be the Center for Spine Surgery, LLC. This partnership will enable the Center for Spine Surgery to become the preferred provider of spine surgery services in Delaware and surrounding communities.

The Center for Spine Surgery will be owned equally (50-50) by ChristianaCare and Delaware Neurosurgical Group, PA. The governing board will consist of three individuals from each organization.

“This partnership is about delivering the right care, at the right place, with an expert team and an unwavering focus on value,” said Ken Silverstein, M.D. MBA, chief physician executive of ChristianaCare. “It builds on a long history of collaboration between two expert teams — ChristianaCare and Delaware Neurosurgical Group. The partnership will provide our community with access to high-quality spinal care and pain management services at a much lower cost. And we’re proud to launch this new service at the Roxana Cannon Arsht Surgicenter in the heart of Wilmington, which has been delivering an outstanding surgical experience for decades.”

The Center for Spine Surgery combines ChristianaCare’s long-standing reputation for high-quality surgical services and Delaware Neurosurgical Group’s experience as a leading provider of spine surgery services.

“We are thrilled to partner with ChristianaCare to deliver comprehensive spine surgical services in the Roxana Cannon Arsht Surgicenter,” said Pawan Rastogi, M.D., board president for Center for Spine Surgery, LLC. “Our patients will continue to experience exceptional physician expertise, comprehensive services and a strong commitment to making a significant difference in their day-to-day lives.”

The Center for Spine Surgery will:

• Enhance quality of care by solely focusing on outpatient spine surgical procedures that deliver the right care in the right place to reduce health risks and increase patient comfort.
• Decrease costs of care by transitioning appropriate spine surgeries that are currently all performed in an acute hospital setting to an appropriate outpatient setting.
• Increase access and care coordination with a single focus by caring for patients only in need of spine surgical procedures and treatment.
• Serve as an ideal location for surgeons in the community to schedule spine surgical procedures.

The Center for Spine Surgery will have six operating rooms, six overnight rooms, a post-surgical recovery space and 23-hour stay capacity for spine surgical patients. It will perform a full range of spine procedures (low acuity to high acuity) including injections, laminectomies and more complex procedures such as, but not limited to, multilevel cervical fusions, posterior cervical, thoracic and lumbar fusions.

The establishment of the Center for Spine Surgery is reflective of the national industry shift from inpatient surgeries to outpatient surgeries to improve patient access and achieve reductions in health care costs. During the first year of operation, the Center for Spine Surgery expects to achieve approximately $13.6 million cost savings in Delaware.

Inpatient spine surgery at ChristianaCare will remain available for people who need urgent or emergency care, and for cases in which outpatient spine surgery is not medically appropriate.

About ChristianaCare
Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, ChristianaCare is one of the country’s most dynamic health care organizations, centered on improving health outcomes, making high-quality care more accessible and lowering health care costs. ChristianaCare includes an extensive network of primary care and outpatient services, home health care, urgent care centers, three hospitals (1,299 beds), a free-standing emergency department, a Level I trauma center and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, a comprehensive stroke center and regional centers of excellence in heart and vascular care, cancer care and women’s health. It also includes the pioneering Gene Editing Institute and was rated by IDG Computerworld as one of the nation’s Best Places to Work in IT. ChristianaCare is a nonprofit teaching health system with more than 260 residents and fellows. With the unique CareVio data-powered care coordination service and a focus on population health and value-based care, ChristianaCare is shaping the future of health care. For eight consecutive years, ChristianaCare has both been named one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Spine Surgery by HealthGrades and recognized by the American College of Surgeons for achieving “meritorious” outcomes in surgical patient care. Learn how ChristianaCare delivers greater quality and value here.

About Delaware Neurosurgical Group
The Delaware Neurosurgical Group is a leading neurosurgical practice in the region offering world-class neurosurgical care and treatment for more than 35 years. The group brings together the resources, exceptional expertise, comprehensive services and a strong commitment to make a significant difference in the lives of neurosurgical patients (both brain and spine) in the region. Its expert physicians specialize in degenerative, oncologic (cancer), and traumatic conditions of the brain, as well as cervical, thoracic, and lumbar disk surgery, spinal fractures, spinal fusion and arthroplasty, peripheral nerve surgery, pain pumps and stimulators, hydrocephalus and brain tumors and aneurysms. Its physicians are focused on providing healthy outcomes through both nonsurgical and surgical treatment options using the latest minimally invasive surgical approaches. The Delaware Neurosurgical Group has four locations (North Wilmington, Newark, Dover and Rehoboth Beach) conveniently located throughout the state of Delaware. Physicians in the group have received Top Doctor awards for many years including in 2020.