Surgery News - February 2008 - (Page 12)

SURGERY NEWS • F E B R U A RY 2 0 0 8 NEWS FROM THE COLLEGE AMA House of Delegates Adopts Health Policy B Y J O N S U T TO N, M A N A G E R , S TAT E A F F A I R S , D I V I S I O N O F A D V O C A C Y A N D H E A LT H POLICY T here are many forums beyond state legislatures or the federal government through which health policy can be developed, and the American Medical Association’s (AMA) House of Delegates (HOD) is one such venue. Many specialty societies send delegations to the HOD to assist with advocacy activity, and the ACS is well represented by a diverse group of surgeons. HOD Business Several issues came to the fore at the November 2007 meeting of the AMA HOD. One concern dealt with improving abdominal aortic aneurysm screening, and a resolution was developed to encourage Congress to extend a onetime screening to all Medicare beneficiaries between the ages of 65 and 75 years. The HOD adopted this policy with support from the College, the Society for Vascular Surgery, and other surgical specialty societies. There also was strong support for improving reimbursement for physicians, encouraging use of restraints on children’s school buses, and extending the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. An issue brought forward by the ophthalmology delegation, and supported by the College and many specialty societies, dealt with the voting composition of the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI). There were concerns that changes to the PCPI bylaws to allow nonphysician representatives to vote on physician-developed performance measures would result in nonphysicians determining what physicians should be doing and would provide additional support for expanding the scope of practice of nonphysician health care providers. As a result of the complexity and emotion surrounding this issue, it was referred to the AMA Board of Trustees for a decision. 2007-2008 Members of the Surgical Caucus Executive Committee John Armstrong, M.D., FACS, Chair, ACS Alternate Delegate William Huffaker, M.D., FACS, Chair-Elect, Missouri Delegate Charles Drueck, M.D., FACS, Secretary, Illinois Delegate Michael Simon, M.D., Treasurer, Alternate Delegate, American Society of Anesthesiologists Michael Deren, M.D., FACS, Member At-Large, Connecticut Delegate Randolph Gould, M.D., FACS, Member At-Large, Virginia Delegate Willard Stawski, M.D., FACS, Member At-Large, Michigan Delegate Richard Reiling, M.D., FACS, ACS Representative Brigitta Robinsin, M.D., FACS, AMA Young Physicians Section Representative Hannah Zimmerman, M.D., AMA Resident; Fellow Section Representative Surgical Caucus The Surgical Caucus continues to be a smooth and mature operation, with administrative support provided by the ACS. The Executive Committee of the caucus is composed of delegates or alternates from numerous surgical specialty societies, with elections held every year. For the first time, an anesthesiologist, Michael Simon, M.D., was elected to the Executive Committee. His election reflects revisions to bylaws allowing caucus membership and election of nonsurgeons with significant clinical interaction with surgeons (such as specialists in anesthesiology, critical care, emergency medicine, interventional cardiology, and interventional radiology). The caucus implemented a significant programmatic change by holding its first open handbook review. As a result, a refined list of priority positions was generated relevant to resolutions and reports being considered by the HOD. Surgical specialty societies were invited to send representatives to this meeting, which enabled full caucus discussion of important items in an efficient manner. The educational session presented by the caucus was entitled Making Sense of The Joint Commission. The presenters were James Rohack, M.D., an AMA commissioner, and Robert Wise, M.D., vice-president of the division of standards and survey methods. They focused on how hospital-based physicians can engage The Joint Commission constructively. The discussion was well received by an audience of 100. Special Award Presentation During the opening session of the HOD, the AMA honored Arthur R. El- ACS Delegates and Alternates Richard Reiling, M.D., FACS, Charlotte, N.C., Delegation Chair John Armstrong, M.D., FACS, Gainesville, Fla. Charles Logan, M.D., FACS, Little Rock, Ark. Jacob Moalem, M.D. (Resident/Fellow Section), San Francisco, Calif. Sanjay Parikh, M.D., FACS (Young Physicians Section), Bronx, N.Y. Amilu Rothhammer, M.D., FACS, Colorado Springs, Col. Chad Rubin, M.D., FACS, Columbia, S.C. Patricia Turner, M.D., FACS, Baltimore, Md. Thomas Whalen, M.D., FACS, Allentown, Pa. lenberger, Executive Director of the New Jersey Chapter of the ACS and the Essex County Medical Society, with the 2007 Medical Executive Meritorious Achievement Award. Delegate Retirement Following 7 years of service as a delegate, Thomas Whalen, M.D., FACS, retired from the delegation after this November 2007 meeting. An ACS Regent and pediatric surgeon, Dr. Whalen was recognized for a lengthy and distinguished career of leadership and commitment in representing the College as a delegate. For further information on the Interim 2007 AMA HOD and surgical involvement in this meeting, contact Jon Sutton at mailto:jsutton@facs.org. ■ 2007 National Trauma Data Bank Records Exceed 2.7 Million B Y R I C H A R D J. FA N T U S , M . D. , FA C S , A N D D AV I D E . C L A R K , M . D. , FA C S he 2007 Annual Report of the National Trauma Data Bank® (NTDB) Version 7.0, based on 1,485,098 records from the years 2002-2006, is an updated analysis of the largest aggregation of trauma registry data ever assembled. Now containing more than 2.7 million records, the NTDB uses a rolling 5-year time frame for the annual analysis in order to focus on the most recent, highest-quality data. Before analysis, NTDB data are subjected to a quality screening for consistency and validity. The report contains several T enhancements over previous annual reports, among them new tables and figures describing specific organ systems in greater detail and three new graphs for different level designation by hospital using all the 2006 admission year data. These graphs present the number of records submitted, data completeness, and case fatality rate by hospital for level designation I, II, III, or IV (see figure). Level designation is defined as ACS verification level or state designation level. The mission of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (COT) is to develop and implement meaningful programs for trauma care. In keeping with this mis- sion, the NTDB is committed to being the principal national repository for trauma center registry data. We estimate that WE ESTIMATE THAT 78% OF LEVEL I AND 71% OF LEVEL II U.S. TRAUMA CENTERS HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE DATA BANK. 78% of level I and 71% of level II trauma centers in the United States have contributed to the NTDB. The purpose of this report is to inform the medical community, the public, and decision makers about a wide variety of issues that characterize the current state of care for injured persons in our country. It has implications in many areas including epidemiology, injury control, research, education, acute care, and resource allocation. Many dedicated individuals on the ACS COT and at trauma centers around the country have contributed to the early development of the NTDB and its rapid growth in recent years. Building on these achievements, we intend in the coming years to improve data quality, update analytic methods, and enable more useful interhospital comparison. These efforts will be reflected in future NTDB reports to participating hospitals and in future annual reports. The full NTDB Annual Report Version 7.0 is available on the ACS Web site as a PDF and a PowerPoint presentation at www.ntdb.org. If you wish to submit your trauma center’s data, contact Melanie L. Neal, Manager, NTDB, at mneal@facs.org. ■ DR. FANTUS is Chair of the ad hoc Trauma Registry Advisory Committee of the Committee on Trauma, Chicago. DR. CLARK is Chair of the NTDB Subcommittee of the COT. He lives in Portland, Maine. http://www.ntdb.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Surgery News - February 2008

Surgery News - February 2008 Contents IOM Committee Looks Into Safety Of Work Schedules Expertise Can Extend Liver Resectability Report Faults Specialty Hospitals' EDs Meeting Expectations Silver Lining HOD on Health Longer Liver Life?

Surgery News - February 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.