Boston

On June 4, 2012, a panel of experts came together at the Boston Marriott Copley Place and led a community discussion around Inspiring Quality in Surgical Health Care – Quality Improvement Programs that Improve Outcomes and Reduce Costs. Participants and audience members discussed the value proposition that quality surgical care not only delivers better patient outcomes, but that it also delivers better financial outcomes – a critical and often overlooked tool in helping curb rising health care costs.

Pictured from left to right: Dr. Slavin; Dr. Gawande; Dr. Warshaw; Dr. Altman; Dr. Zinner; Dr. Finlayson; and Dr. Hutter

The forum featured keynote speaker Stuart Altman, PhD, MA, BBA, Economist and Health Policy Expert, Brandeis University and was hosted by Andrew L. Warshaw, MD, FACS, W. Gerald Austen Distinguished Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School; Surgeon-in-Chief, Emeritus, MGH; Chair, ACS Health Policy and Advocacy Group, and Michael J. Zinner, MD, FACS, Moseley Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School; Clinical Director, Dana Farber, Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center; Surgeon-in-Chief, BWH; Member, American College of Surgeons Board of Regents.

Panelists included:

  • Samuel Finlayson, MD, MPH, FACS; Kessler Director, Center for Surgery and Public Health, BWH
  • Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, FACS; BWH; Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health; Lead Advisor, Surgery, World Health Organization Patient Safety
  • Matthew Hutter, MD, MPH, FACS; Director of the Codman Center for Clinical Effectiveness in Surgery, MGH; Harvard Medical School
  • Peter Slavin, MD; President, MGH

For more information, read the ACS news release about the Boston forum, Dr. Hutter’s guest blog post on The CommonHealth Blog (WBUR),  or contact InspiringQualityTour@facs.org.

“If we can get to a place where improving quality reduces preventable complications, we will have found part of the solution to the vexing problem of controlling costs in an equitable, humane and efficient way. In the past we didn’t include physicians and surgeons in discussions on how to fix the American health care system because we thought they were part of the problem – a big mistake. We need them as part of the solution because they are American health care. Everyone needs to play, and physicians and surgeons are really on the right track focusing on quality improvement as one viable means to address the cost issue.”

Stuart Altman, PhD, MA, BBA, Economist and Health Policy Expert, Brandeis University, and co-author of “Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care: The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle"