A nerve transfer procedure enabled a quadriplegic to regain partial use of his hand. A face transplant was successful. The College launched the "Inspiring Quality" initiative to lead efforts to improve the quality and value of the nation's health care.
2010
First ACS Lifetime Achievement Award Granted
2010
First ACS Lifetime Achievement Award Granted
The first American College of Surgeons Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to C. Rollins Hanlon, MD, FACS, at the annual Clinical Congress, in Washington, DC. A leading cardiothoracic surgeon and innovator, Dr. Hanlon was a professor and chair of surgery at Saint Louis University, which he helped establish as a major research and clinical institution in the Midwest, especially in cardiothoracic surgery. Dr. Hanlon devoted the latter part of his professional life to the College, serving as its Executive Director from 1969 to 1986 and its President from 1985 to 1986.192 As Executive Director, he led the pivotal decision to remove the College's delegates from the American Medical Association, who had spoken for the profession on legislative matters, and established the College's own Washington, DC, office.193 Until a few weeks before he died (at the age of 96) in 2011, Dr. Hanlon worked as executive consultant to the College, an uncompensated position he held since 1986.194
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2010
ACS Opened New Capitol Hill Office Building
2010
ACS Opened New Capitol Hill Office Building
The College opened its newly constructed 10-story, $107.6 million, 165,000-square-foot office building, at 20 F Street, NW, in Washington, DC.195 Located in the heart of Capitol Hill close to Union Station and major federal buildings, the building serves as the location for the College's Division of Advocacy and Health Policy. The building represented a "powerful statement that the College is very serious about working with policymakers and other health care leaders to identify solutions to improve and expand access to quality, culturally competent health care," said ACS Executive Director David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS.196
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2011
Groundbreaking Face Transplant Performed
2011
Groundbreaking Face Transplant Performed
Nearly three years after losing her face and hands in a vicious attack by a friend's pet chimpanzee, Charla Nash received a face transplant during a groundbreaking 20-hour triple transplant operation that included transplanting both hands. While the face transplantation was considered a success, the hand transplants were not successful. The transplants were performed by a 30-member surgical team at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA, led by Bohdan Pomahac, MD, the hospital's director of plastic surgery transplantation. Nash, who was blinded in the attack, has continued to make progress, regaining feeling in parts of her face.
2011
ACS “Inspiring Quality” Initiative Launched
2011
ACS “Inspiring Quality” Initiative Launched
The College launched its national "Inspiring Quality" initiative to drive awareness of its quality programs and help lead efforts to improve the quality and value of the nation's health care. In the wake of the landmark Affordable Care Act of 2010, the College anticipated that government, business, and health care leaders would be looking for innovative thinking on how to drive better quality and value in health care.197 The College identified four pillars to quality improvement: standards, right infrastructure, rigorous data, and verification. As part of the Inspiring Quality initiative, the College hosted forums around the country to discuss ways to improve care that leads to fewer complications, better outcomes, greater access for patients and lower costs.
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2012
Nerve Transfer Surgery Enables Quadriplegic to Regain Partial Use of Hand
2012
Nerve Transfer Surgery Enables Quadriplegic to Regain Partial Use of Hand
A quadriplegic patient regained some use of his hand due to a groundbreaking procedure called "nerve transfer surgery" performed at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, MO. The patient was injured in the lower part of his neck, which meant that nerves attached to the spine above the injury, which control elbow, shoulder and some wrist function, still worked even though the nerves below the injury, which control the hands, did not. By connecting the working nerves to the non-working nerves, surgeons from the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, led by Susan E. Mackinnon, MD, FACS,198 chief of the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery, were able to restore some hand function to the patient.199 Following the surgical procedure and a year of intensive physical therapy, the patient was able to bend his thumb and index finger, and with assistance he now can write and feed himself bite-size pieces of food. The case study191,192 was the first report of using nerve transfer to restore the ability to flex the thumb and index finger after a spinal cord injury. The operation was developed and performed by Dr. Mackinnon,202 who specializes in injuries to peripheral nerves and has pioneered similar surgical procedures to return function to injured arms and legs.
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2012
College Publishes 100-Year History
2012
College Publishes 100-Year History
A centennial history of the College, A Century of Surgeons and Surgery: The American College of Surgeons 1913-2012, by David L. Nahrwold, MD, FACS, and Peter J. Kernahan, MD, PhD, FACS, was published. An engaging account of the College's achievements, occasional setbacks, and changes in direction, the book examined the personalities and events during the formation and early days of the College, when the medical field was a rough-and-tumble world. It also addressed the creation of the American Board of Surgery, the "War Sessions" during World War II, the Joint Commission, and the College's history of tension with the American Medical Association, among other topics.
2012
Illinois Governor and Chicago Mayor Proclaim September 30-October 4 American College of Surgeons Days
2012
Illinois Governor and Chicago Mayor Proclaim September 30-October 4 American College of Surgeons Days
As ACS celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced September 30-October 4, 2012 as "American College of Surgeons Days." The College received proclamations from Gov. Quinn and Mayor Emanuel, who both encouraged "all Illinoisans to be aware of how the American College of Surgeons' achievements have significantly influenced the course of surgery in America and around the world, and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients."
2013
ACS Publishes Inspiring Quality Lessons Learned Book
2013
ACS Publishes Inspiring Quality Lessons Learned Book
A limited-edition book, ACS Inspiring Quality Tour: Lessons Learned in the Pursuit of Quality Surgical Health Care, was released in April by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in conjunction with its annual Leadership and Advocacy Summit in Washington, DC. The book summarizes the findings of a cross-country 18-month effort by ACS to create a national dialogue about surgical quality and patient safety through a series of ACS Surgical Health Care Quality Forums. The forums were a vital piece of a larger campaign, "Inspiring Quality," which ACS launched in 2011 to raise awareness of proven models that can help improve both the quality and value of health care. The book is available for download.
2013
A Prepared Trauma System Saves Lives after Boston Marathon Bombings
2013
A Prepared Trauma System Saves Lives after Boston Marathon Bombings
How a well-orchestrated and effective trauma system can save lives and limbs was demonstrated on the world stage during the April 15 bombings at the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed instantly in the blasts, but all of the estimated 264 other casualties survived the attack despite sustaining severed limbs and arteries.204 The wounded were received by Boston hospital trauma centers verified by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma.
Disaster response experts were impressed with the efficiency and effectiveness of Boston's trauma system — its hospitals, surgeons and other trauma care personnel, police and fire departments. They cited Boston's emergency response as a "textbook example" of how a major American city should respond to a mass casualty event.205
Perhaps no one summarized the success of the response efforts better than George Velmahos, MD, FACS, chief of trauma surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, which treated 31 of the casualties. "All I feel is joy," he said. "Whoever came in alive, stayed alive."206
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2013
ACS NSQIP® Releases Surgical Risk Calculator
2013
ACS NSQIP® Releases Surgical Risk Calculator
The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) released an innovative surgical risk calculator in August 2013. The publicly available online tool (http://riskcalculator.facs.org/) quickly and easily estimates patient-specific postoperative complication risks for more than 1,500 unique surgical procedures across multiple specialties according to research findings appearing in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. The tool enables surgeons to have more effective conversations with their patients about the risks and benefits of an operation, and indicates factors that can improve risks.
Surgeons developed the risk calculator using ACS NSQIP data collected from nearly 400 hospitals and 1.4 million surgical patients. The online risk calculator prompts surgeons to enter preoperative information about a patient’s risk factors and then generates a customized risk assessment report for that specific patient. The risk calculator also provides predictions for death, overall complication, and serious complication rates, as well as six additional postoperative complications: pneumonia, heart problem, surgical site infection, urinary tract infection, blood clot, and kidney failure. In addition, the Surgical Risk Calculator estimates a customized length of hospital stay for the patient.
In the future, surgeons may receive incentive to use the risk calculator through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS).
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