FORT CARSON, Colo. — Lt. Col. Owen Johnson, a plastic surgeon at Evans Army Community Hospital, works on a patient Oct. 30, 2019. The General Surgery Department at EACH has been recognized by the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program for achieving meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2018. (Photo by Jeanine Mezei)
By Jeanine Mezei, Medical Department Activity-Fort Carson Public Affairs Office
FORT CARSON, Colo. —Evans Army Community Hospital (EACH) has been recognized by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) for achieving meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2018.
As one of only 88 hospitals nationwide to receive the recognition, EACH met and exceeded the organization’s standards in quality surgical care for patients, according to the ACS.
As a participant in ACS NSQIP, EACH is required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and collect data that assesses patient safety to be used to direct improvement in the quality of surgical care.
“This is a testament to the incredible surgical teams we have here at Fort Carson,” said Col. Eric S. Edwards, commander, EACH. “We can be very proud of all of our medical professionals that had a hand in this milestone accomplishment.”
The ACS NSQIP recognition program commends a select group of hospitals for achieving a meritorious composite score in either an “All Cases” category or a category which includes only “High Risk” cases. EACH has been recognized on the “All Cases” meritorious list.
The general surgery mission at EACH encompasses eight surgeons and instrumental support staff to provide a variety of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures.
According to Lt. Col. Brandon Brown, chief of General Surgery at EACH, the department was recognized based on a weighted score for each of the following clinical areas: mortality, cardiac events, pneumonia, unplanned intubation, ventilator use under 48 hours, renal failure, surgical site infection and urinary tract infection.
“This award indicates that EACH is actively working to improve quality in all these areas by comparing our surgical outcomes to national benchmarks,” said Brown. “To me, it means that every single person involved in a patient’s surgery, whether they directly touch the patient or not, is focused on doing a great job.”
The surgical mission at EACH is achieved not only by surgeons, but is a reflection of a multidisciplinary effort from physicians, anesthesia providers, nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants, nurses, ancillary staff, environmental services and administrative teams.
According to Brown, patients having surgical procedures at EACH can have confidence that the staff has achieved significant quality measures to reduce the likelihood of surgical complications and improve the success of the surgery.
This is the first time EACH has been recognized by ACS for achieving meritorious outcomes in surgery. With this accomplishment, Brown plans to keep EACH on track for continued success.
“Moving forward, we plan to continue participation in the NSQIP program,” said Brown. “This involves reporting complications and outcomes to the database, identifying areas in which we can improve and implementing appropriate interventions to promote safe, quality care for our patients.”