Washington, D.C. | ACS Inspiring Quality

On May 24, 2011, several leaders of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Board of Regents and staff of the Division of Advocacy and Health Policy met with key members of Congress and their staff to discuss ACS’s ongoing role in the nation’s efforts to improve quality of care and to control health care spending.

ACS Leaders/Staff (from left to right): Don E. Detmer, MD, FACS, Medical Director, Division of Advocacy and Health Policy; J. David Richardson, MD, FACS, Regent; L.D. Britt, MD, MPH, FACS, FCCM, FRCS(Eng)(Hon), President; Carlos Pellegrini, MD, FACS, Chair, Board of Regents; David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS, Executive Director; Clifford Y. Ko, MD, FACS, Director, Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care; Frank G. Opelka, MD, FACS, Chair, Committee on Patient Safety and Quality Improvement

Quality is a Shared Interest and a Shared Mission

ACS’s mission of Inspiring Quality: Highest Standards, Better Outcomes, and the ideals ACS has promoted for nearly 100 years – improving quality through high standards and clinical research – is resonating in Washington, D.C. During meetings on Capitol Hill, ACS presented solid evidence documenting how ACS quality improvement programs can be useful in the development of the value-based health care delivery system that the federal government has been striving to put into place for the past decade, and align with the goals and objectives of current quality improvement programs, including:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – improving quality, constraining spending, and expanding access to care.
National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – better care, healthy people and communities, and affordable care.
Triple Aim, developed by the administrators of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – improving the experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing per capita costs of health care.
The Institute of Medicine’s call for the creation of a “learning health care system” – concept and contextualization of evidence.

For more information about the Washington, D.C. Inspiring Quality visit, read Dr. David Hoyt’s editorial Looking Forward in The ACS Bulletin and click here to see more images.