The American College of Surgeons (ACS) today hosted the ACS Surgical Health Care Quality Forum Connecticut, in partnership with the ACS Connecticut Chapter and the Connecticut State Medical Society.  The forum was the 13th in a series of events that bring together surgeons, hospitals, health  plans, physicians, government, and other health care leaders to share best practices for improving patient care, achieving better outcomes and curbing rising health care costs.

The Connecticut Forum highlighted the efforts of the Connecticut Surgical Quality Collaborative (CtSQC), a statewide group of 20 hospitals that meets regularly to share quality outcomes including successes and best practices for the benefit of all patients in the state. 

The CtSQC announced that six additional hospitals are joining this effort, including: Hartford Hospital, The Hospital of Central Connecticut, Windham Hospital, MidState Medical Center, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, and John Dempsey Hospital at the UConn Health Center.  Many of the CtSQC hospitals also use the ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) to focus on improving outcomes in key areas of surgical care and providing the utmost value—health outcomes achieved per dollar spent—to patients, hospitals, and health plans.

 “Our collaborative is a unique forum to get hospitals at the table, not as competitors, but as health care providers with a common goal to improve patient care,” said forum host Scott J. Ellner, DO, MPH, FACS, director of surgical quality, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, assistant professor of surgery, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and Co-chair, ACS Connecticut Chapter Committee on Patient Safety.  “We now have more than two-thirds of the hospitals in the state participating, sharing practical and candid information with each other, and that’s something we all can be really proud of.  As a result of this effort, patients will get better care and our health care system will improve—everyone wins.”

“Connecticut is the perfect example of what the College aspires to drive forward with these forums and the Inspiring Quality initiative—encouraging collaboration to share tangible examples of quality improvement and therefore provide a platform for action,” said ACS Executive Director David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS.  “The health care system is complicated and varies significantly state by state, but quality improvement doesn’t have to be complex and difficult to achieve if we’re all on the same page about what needs to be fixed.”