What We’re Doing
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) is embarking upon an important mission to establish a national model for retooling, credentialing, and privileging for surgeons in practice—particularly as it relates to skills training and developing proficiency in new and existing surgical procedures and technologies.
Our Goal
We aim to transform how surgeons are trained and assessed throughout their long careers to ensure that they are continually on top of their game, delivering the best quality surgical care. The ultimate goal is to establish a surgeon and health care facility verification program based on new standards to support proficiency and evidence-based best practices for the credentialing and privileging process.
Launch – January 29, 2016
Surgeon Retooling Reimagined: Achieving and Maintaining Lifelong Excellence kicked off in early 2016 at the Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation & Education (MITIE) in Houston, TX. Multiple stakeholders—representatives of industry, insurers, liability carriers and attorneys, health care associations, surgeons, and others—came together in workgroups to begin the process of establishing a surgeon and health care facility verification program based on new standards to support proficiency and evidence-based best practices for the credentialing and privileging process. The meeting convened a wide spectrum of perspectives to raise the important ideas, issues and questions that will shape the creation of a national surgical retooling and credentialing program.
Workgroup Results
Forum Photos
Event Program
What’s Next
The ACS has been working internally to disseminate information captured at the forum in an effort to develop a whitepaper or manuscript laying out the goals and objectives of the initiative, key insights assembled from the kick-off meeting, and next steps toward establishing ACS credentialing and privileging guidelines. Small workgroups are currently being convened with meetings taking place in 2016 and culminating with the next public forum meeting in early 2017 in Seattle. Information will be shared in the coming months on the Seattle meeting and additional ways to be involved. If you have questions about the event or initiative, please contact ACSEducation@facs.org.