Surgeons to set quality standards

The American College of Surgeons is launching an initiative to make sure surgeons are competent in new and innovative procedures and that surgical facilities are accredited to provide appropriate care in those areas.

In February, the college's board of regents voted to expand its efforts to ensure surgical competency and safe surgical care. The new effort will deal with emerging surgical care provided by all surgical specialties, college officials said.

Bariatric surgery will be the first area to be addressed. Other new surgical procedures will be looked at as they evolve and become a part of surgical practice, ACS Executive Director Thomas R. Russell, MD, said in an e-mail announcing the program.

The college "believes that its new program to verify the training and competence of surgeons who perform innovative surgical procedures and to accredit hospitals and centers in which they are performed will ensure that the highest standards governing surgical care are followed and that the end result for the surgical patient will be the best possible outcome," Dr. Russell said.

ACS is developing the initiative and will keep the college's 66,000 members updated on its progress. "It's our effort to bring best practices and best care to patients, some standardization and uniformity to how we care for sick people," said R. Scott Jones, MD, director of the college's division of research and optimal patient care.

The initiative continues the college's tradition of setting standards for the best and safest care for surgical patients, ACS officials said. Its committee on cancer, for example, established standards for more than 1,400 cancer programs and evaluated and accredited programs according to the standards. An ACS trauma program reviews and approves trauma centers at hospitals.