American College Of Surgeons, Washington State's Aviation And Health Care Leaders Participate In Discussions

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) hosted nearly 80 health care and aviation industry leaders at its fifth Surgical Health Care Quality Forum on Wednesday, April 11, at The Rainier Club in Seattle, WA. The event brought together a diverse combination of leaders from Washington State's aviation and health care industries to champion effective quality improvement programs and best practices in checklists, standardization, culture shifts and transparency to make surgery safer and reduce health care costs.

Carlos A. Pellegrini, M.D., FACS, FRCSI (Hon.), The Henry N. Harkins Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery, University of Washington and past Chair, American College of Surgeons Board of Regents, hosted the event, which featured opening remarks from Congressman Jim McDermott (WA-7th District). The Congressman discussed the challenges of health care quality and cost, Washington State's leadership in quality improvement, and why it is important for the surgical community to be involved in health care discussions on Capitol Hill. The Seattle forum, part of the College's Inspiring Quality initiative to drive national discussion around critical elements required in successful quality improvement programs, highlighted the adoption of aviation-like standardization and checklists, as well as quality research and data from programs like the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP), the Surgical Care and Outcomes Assessment Program (SCOAP) and its research platform, CERTAIN.

"One of the greatest challenges we face in Congress is [health care] costs," said Congressman McDermott. "This is an opportunity to recognize the surgeons at the University of Washington and around the state who are applying the principles of quality and cost and proving these two things are not at odds with each other."

"We thought it was very appropriate to unite the ACS Inspiring Quality initiative with aviation expertise and the successful quality programs we have implemented to date here in the state of Washington," said Dr. Pellegrini. "This was a unique opportunity to invite and learn from two industries that represent everything we are trying to achieve with Inspiring Quality: safety, quality and excellence."

ACS Executive Director David B. Hoyt, M.D., FACS expanded on the College's rich history driving quality improvement and stressed the important connection between quality and education.

"We have a responsibility to demonstrate to patients that our educational efforts are preparing us to provide the best quality care," said Dr. Hoyt. "The ACS Division of Education has developed an accreditation program across the country that includes 65 institutes where surgeons are being trained and new and existing procedures are being reaffirmed. This is a model for the future and is really about the public and patients trusting that we are qualified as surgeons to do a procedure."

FMI: www.facs.org