Tag Archive for ‘geriatric surgery’
ACS Partners with The John A. Hartford Foundation to Enhance GSV Program
With support from The John A. Hartford Foundation, the ACS will evaluate the content, implementation, and outcomes of the GSV Program in real-world care settings.
Australian hospital calls in the COPS to improve care of older patients
As the world’s population ages, older people are increasingly presenting to the hospital with surgical problems that require assessment and management. Older patients face different challenges than their younger counterparts, including an increased risk of complications, death, and functional decline.1,2 The presence of frailty, cognitive impairment, and multiple comorbidities also contributes to poorer postoperative outcomes […]
Virtual acute care for older patients reduces hospital length of stay
A quality improvement initiative implemented by the University of Alabama at Birmingham improved patient mobility and decreased hospital length of stay for an older surgical patient population.
Enhanced recovery program benefits frail colon and rectal surgery patients
This column describes the implementation of an enhanced recovery program for colon and rectal surgery patients at a not-for-profit, urban, tertiary care, Level I trauma center.
From blueprints to blastoff: Launching the GSV Quality Improvement Program
This month’s cover story describes the development of the Geriatric Surgery Verification Quality Improvement Program and its aim to support a team-based approach to interdisciplinary care and to establish evidence-based standards for the care of older adults.
Old, irregular, thin, and falling
This month’s column examines the occurrence of patients ages 80 or older on anticoagulants in the National Trauma Data Bank®.
Examining rapid response system treatments in the elderly patient population
This month’s column addresses the benefits of effectively using rapid response system calls for elderly patients who suffer from chronic illnesses.
Geriatric assessment and frailty in older cancer patients
The importance of identifying high-risk, frail cancer patients to ensure optical care is the focus of this month’s column.
ACS CQGS introduces course on care of the complex older patient
The development of the Management of the Complex Older Surgical Patient: Geriatric and Palliative Care course is described as are best practices for geriatric surgical care.
Improving surgical care and outcomes through the OPTI-Surg toolkit
The OPTI-Surg study evaluates an efficient screening and optimization tool for improving outcomes after major cancer surgery.
CQGS releases preliminary standards for quality surgical care for older adults
The Coalition for Quality in Geriatric Surgery launched its alpha pilot phase in January to determine reviewer feedback on its hospital-level surgical care standards for older adults.
Improving quality in geriatric surgery: A blueprint from the American College of Surgeons
This article outlines the development of the ACS quality improvement activities specifically aimed at the care of geriatric surgical patients under the aegis of the Coalition for Quality in Geriatric Surgery and the ACS NSQIP Geriatric Surgery Pilot Project.
Surgical futility and patient-centered care: The effects of human nature in decision making
The need for surgeons to competently communicate of the quality-of-life benefits of nonsurgical and palliative care to patients and families is the focus of this article.
The ACS leads efforts to improve quality of care for older surgical patients
This news brief summarizes ACS efforts to enhance the quality of surgical care for older adults.
ACS NSQIP National Conference inspires participants to innovate to make a difference
More than 1,500 individuals who work in hospital quality improvement programs participated in the ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program 2016 Annual Conference, July 16–19, in San Diego, CA.
ACS and Hartford Foundation launch four-year geriatric initiative
The ACS in partnership with the John A. Hartford Foundation, announced a four-year initiative aimed at improving health care for older surgical patients through a standards and verification program for hospitals.
The ACS NSQIP Geriatric Surgery Pilot Project: Improving care for older surgical patients
An overview of the ACS NSQIP Geriatric Surgery Pilot Project and its primary aim—to evaluate specific geriatric variables for incorporation into the ACS NSQIP set of essential variables—is provided in this article.
Letters to the Editor
The following comments were received regarding recent articles published in the Bulletin.
RAS Issues Symposium: Surgery at the end of life: For love or money?
To operate, or not to operate—that is the question. Data show that in 2008, among Medicare beneficiaries in the final year of life, nearly one in three underwent a surgical procedure. Nearly one in five had surgery in the last month of life, and nearly one in 10 had surgery in the last week of life. Why do we operate on these patients? Does the availability of hospital beds influence surgeons to operate more frequently? Perhaps—but the reasons surgeons operate are more complicated than these data would suggest.
RAS Issues Symposium: Reining in the scalpel
Recent articles in the mainstream press indicate a growing public awareness that end-of-life procedures are overused. As surgeons, we know that the decision to perform surgery at the end of life is difficult, and there is no shortage of manuscripts delving into this complex topic. From this author’s perspective, end-of-life operations, specifically in the elderly, are overused and do little to lengthen or improve quality of life and, indeed, often cause more harm than good.
