Issue Briefs from ACS

Operation Patient Access believes that all Americans should have access to affordable, high-quality and safe surgical care delivered in a timely and appropriate manner. Issues affecting access include not only insurance coverage and the cost of care, but many other factors that have an impact on the delivery and quality of care. Following are statements from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) on a number of key issues currently being debated in the health care reform process.

	Access to Health Care Operation Patient Access believes that all Americans should have access to affordable, high-quality and safe surgical care delivered in a timely and...		Medical Home Operation Patient Access agrees that substantive health care reform must improve the quality and cut the costs of health care, and supports...
	Comparative Effectiveness Operation Patient Access strongly supports the need for comparative effectiveness research and applauds the passage of federal legislation that...		Performance Measurement and Transparency Operation Patient Access actively supports performance measures, provided they are non-punitive, transparent, accurate, reliable and valid....
	Disparities in Care America’s surgeons strongly support the elimination of disparities in the availability and delivery of health care. We believe there must be...		Quality Improvement Operation Patient Access is dedicated to continually improving the quality of health care processes, procedures and outcomes. An important part of...
	Health Information Technology To improve the quality of care for patients, America’s surgeons support the establishment and adoption of an interoperable, nationwide Health...		Resident Work Hours Surgeons support the recommendation in the recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, “Resident Duty Hours: Enhancing Sleep, Supervision, and...
	Healthcare Workforce Shortage Americans’ access to quality health care, including surgical care, is at risk because of critical shortages in the health care workforce –...		Trauma Care Systems The emergency health care system in America is in crisis. According to a published report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ),...