The American College of Surgeons (ACS) Patient Education Committee works to improve the quality of patient care and promote patient safety through educational efforts that recognize patients as integral members of the surgical team. The Committee’s aim is to help patients and their significant others become thoroughly informed about their operation, provide evidence to guide them in their decisions, and empower them with the knowledge and skills necessary to participate in their surgical care and continued postoperative care upon discharge.
Reach
Reach more people using effective and efficient methods for all learners through enhanced dissemination and engagement pathways.
- Implement and evaluate an e-delivery platform for surgical patient education that is ready to use but can be customized for a practice or hospital system.
- Develop a patient centered website for surgical patients and caregiver education.
- Implement an E-delivery platform for surgical patient education that is ready to use but can be customized for a practice or hospital system.
Train
Train surgical healthcare providers to support the perioperative best care practices.
- Develop a formal curriculum and credentialing program for surgical patient educators.
- Develop the healthcare provider skill training programs using the credentialed course model.
Advance
Advance and disseminate knowledge to help create an efficient system whereby patients receive care based on the best practices.
- Ensure safe and high-quality care by setting standards for surgical patient education.
- Foster the distinctiveness of the ACS as a trusted source of surgical patient education.
- Connect resources of surgical specialty education using a digital enterprise system which will avail the content for use as an app or web-based delivery model. Develop mechanisms and teams to support publishing outcomes.
Build
Build a data-driven education system that informs, educates, and supports evaluation and research.
- Support research and analysis using data at the individual and population health level.
- Connect the surgical community and patients with education and data that advances surgical outcomes.
- Encourage collaborative research using tools and education programs developed by the ACS.
- Implement the surgical patient recovery education and evaluation program portal.
Partner
Partner and facilitate meaningful collaboration to accelerate improved outcomes for surgical patients.
- Work collaboratively with other national medical and surgical associations and federal agencies to identify existing programs resources and materials for patient education research.
- Establish new methods for engaging professionals in surgical patient education research.
Increase collaboration with other areas of the ACS including Quality, Cancer, Advocacy, and Membership in implementing outreach and evaluation of surgical patient education programs.
Promote
Promote Health and Surgical Recovery.
- Promote easy access to materials to reduce the administrative burden on professionals.
- Advance safe practices through education training and health IT.
- Integrate health data into patient surgical prep and recovery education.
Patient Education Committee Roster
Patrice Gabler Blair, DrPH, MPH
Amanda Bruggeman
Kathleen Heneghan, PhD, MSN, RN, FAACE
Katie Maruyama, MSN, RN
The Patient Education Committee welcomes your comments. Please write to the Committee's staff liaison, Amanda Bruggeman, at abruggeman@facs.org.
Interested in joining a committee? E-mail ms@facs.org.
