Critical care surgery team develops blueprint for essential operations during COVID-19
CHICAGO (March 30, 2020): As patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) flood hospitals, the health care system must not only determine how to redeploy limited resources and staff to care for them but must also make well-calculated decisions to provide other types of critical care. For surgeons, this type of critical care involves performing an emergency operation to treat a ruptured appendix or perforated colon—to both virus-exposed and non-exposed patients—while keeping both hospital personnel and non-exposed patients safe
ACS releases clinical guidance document for elective surgical case triage during COVID-19
CHICAGO (March 25, 2020): The American College of Surgeons continues to provide guidance for surgeons to curtail recommendations for elective surgical procedures to preserve the necessary resources for care of critically ill patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ACS COT releases recommendations on maintaining trauma center access during COVID-19
CHICAGO (March 19, 2020): ACS Committee on Trauma recommendations to provide guidance to facilitate trauma center access and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ACS offers triage guidance for non-emergent surgical procedures during COVID-19 outbreak
CHICAGO (March 18, 2020): The American College of Surgeons has released “COVID-19: Guidance for Triage of Non-emergent Surgical Procedures” to provide surgeons with additional guidance.
ACS releases recommendations for surgical management of elective operations during COVID-19 pandemic
CHICAGO (March 13, 2020): The American College of Surgeons recommends hospitals, health systems, and surgeons enact plans to minimize, postpone, or cancel elective operations at the current time.
Aggressive features in some small thyroid tumors increase the risk for metastasis
CHICAGO (March 6, 2020): Study findings support the need for new forms of preoperative testing to find high-risk tumors and thorough patient counseling about all treatment options.
Surgeons cut opioid prescriptions by 64 percent using a new multipronged program
CHICAGO (March 2, 2020): Surgeons in a large health-care system in central Texas implemented a pain management program that reduced longer-term opioid prescriptions by two-thirds.
48 cancer care programs receive CoC Outstanding Achievement Award
CHICAGO (Updated March 3, 2020): Annual Outstanding Achievement Award is granted to accredited cancer programs that exceed compliance expectations of the CoC standards.
The best preoperative definition of cancer-related malnutrition depends on cancer type
CHICAGO (February 26, 2020): The best approach for surgeons to identify malnourished cancer patients before they have a cancer operation may be specifically related to the type of cancer the patient has, according to researchers who found that common definitions of malnutrition do not apply equally to all cancers in assessment of preoperative risk.
Study examines why colon cancer is more deadly in pediatric and young adult patients
CHICAGO February 21, 2020): New research findings reveal the need for further investigation that may indicate why colon cancer is different in children, adolescents, and young adults.
Readmission risk increases for elderly patients with geriatric-specific characteristics
CHICAGO February 18, 2020): Researchers have examined new geriatric-specific characteristics that appear to raise the risk of elderly surgical patients having an unplanned hospital readmission.
ACS comments on surprise billing study in today’s JAMA
CHICAGO (February 11, 2020): ACS issues comments in light of a study released today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) examining unexpected medical bills for privately insured patients who undergo elective surgery with in-network primary surgeons and facilities.
Virtual crossmatching improves quality of life for kidney transplant patients
CHICAGO (January 31, 2020): Virtual crossmatching reduces waiting time for compatibility testing, eliminating the need for backup patients to come to the hospital unnecessarily, and expedites transplant surgery scheduling.