The American College of Surgeons (ACS) hosted the San Diego Surgical Health Care Quality Forum with keynote speaker David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS, ACS Executive Director, on Friday, March 2 at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, CA. A panel of experts representing San Diego area academic medical centers and medical schools, hospitals, military, not-for-profit health care associations and quality improvement leaders led a community discussion about Inspiring Quality in Surgical Health Care – Quality Improvement Programs that Improve Outcomes and Reduce Costs. ACS President-Elect, A. Brent Eastman, Chief Medical Officer and Corporate Senior Vice President, Scripps Health, hosted and moderated the discussion which focused on the critical elements required in successful quality programs and best-practices about real-world quality improvement programs that measurably improve outcomes and reduce costs.
The program began with a keynote address from Dr. Hoyt followed by panelist statements and a Q&A session on surgical quality improvement programs.
Pictured from left to right: Dr. James E. LaBelle; Dr. David Chang; Dr. Mark Schumacher; Dr. Ralph Dilley; Captain Mark A. Kobelja; Dr. Mark Talamini; Dr. David B. Hoyt; Chris Van Gorder; Dr. A. Brent Eastman
Panelists Included:
- Chris Van Gorder, FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer, Scripps Health; Immediate Past Chairman, American College of Healthcare Executives
- Mark A. Talamini, MD, FACS, Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery, University of California, San Diego
- Captain Mark Kobelja, MD, MC USN, Deputy Commander, Naval Medical Center, San Diego
- Ralph Dilley, MD, Vice Chairman, Department of Surgery, Scripps Clinic Medical Group; Surgeon-in-Chief, Scripps Green Hospital
- Mark Schumacher, MD, FACS, Physician Director of Hospital Surgical Services, Kaiser Permanente, San Diego
- David Chang, PhD, MPH, MBA, Director of Outcomes Research, Department of Surgery, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
- James E. LaBelle, MD, MBA, Corporate Vice President of Quality, Medical Management, and Physician Co-Management, Scripps Health
For more information, read the ACS news release about the San Diego forum.
For questions about this event please contact InspiringQualityTour@facs.org.
“We all recognize our country is facing a broken health care system where costs are skyrocketing out of control. As health care providers, we are committed to helping solve this problem. The good news is the evidence-based and proven value proposition that says, by improving quality we can decrease costs and decrease variation in care, really can make a difference in working toward a sustainable health care system.”