*New* ACS Post-COVID-19 Readiness Checklist for Resuming Nonemergent Surgery Issued

COVID-19 Pandemic Breast Cancer Consortium Outlines Considerations for Resumption of Care

ACS Academy of Master Surgeon Educators Committee Addresses Challenges and Opportunities in Surgical Training during COVID-19

2020 ACS Quality and Safety Conference to Be Held Virtually

ACS News and Announcements

As many states have approved the resumption of elective surgery, we understand patients may have questions and specific uncertainties about the safety of undergoing elective operations in hospitals, regardless of whether COVID-19 patients are being concurrently treated in the same facility. 
 
The patient-surgeon relationship is one that is built on transparency and trust. More than ever, patients are turning to their surgeons for advice and information that will help them feel more knowledgeable not just about their surgery, but having that surgery in a time when COVID-19 exists.
 
To address this, the ACS developed the American College of Surgeons Post-COVID-19 Readiness Checklist for Resuming Surgery. The intent of this checklist is to help surgeons ultimately communicate the important items patients want to know.
 
In the coming days, the College will provide a tool kit of materials to help you communicate with patients regarding how they can safely return for surgery they need. We will continue to support our surgical community and patients as we return to surgical care.

https://www.facs.org/covid-19/checklist

his new newsletter replaces Bulletin: ACS COVID-19 Updates, which ended publication last week, and the weekly ACS NewsScope that you traditionally have received on Thursday night. It combines all the elements of both newsletters, as well as new content, in a reader friendly and responsive format. As always, your feedback is appreciated as this publication evolves. https://www.facs.org/publications/bulletin-brief/051220

5 Things to Know:

Lisa A. Newman, MD, MPH, FACS, FASCO, Second Vice-President-Elect, ACS, explains why African Americans are more severely affected by COVID-19 to TIME Reports with Katie Couric

Contact Congress today to encourage support for ACS provisions in the next COVID-19 legislation

New ACS National Professional Development Seminars can help medical students whose undergraduate education has been affected by COVID-19

Apply for open 2020 ACS Committee opportunities

ACS Surgeon Specific Registry updates: MIPS 2019 data submitted and MIPS 2020 participation available

As the curve begins to flatten and hospitals and surgeons’ offices resume offering elective procedures, the COVID-19 Communications Committee has set its sights on new opportunities.

The Bulletin: ACS COVID-19 Updates has served the community of health care providers well during the acute phase of this pandemic. Going forward, the Bulletin: ACS COVID-19 Updates will evolve to a new e-newsletter, Bulletin Brief. This new weekly communications vehicle will continue to provide updates on important advances the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and other stakeholders are making to assist you in providing optimal care for the duration of the pandemic, but also will include the latest information on other ACS activities and news.

Bulletin Brief will replace this newsletter and the weekly ACS NewsScope that you traditionally have received on Thursday night. It will be distributed Tuesday nights and will combine all the elements of both newsletters in a reader-friendly and responsive format. 

> Read more

As most of you already know, surgeons are facing steep Medicare and other payment cuts in the next 24 to 30 months. Continued reimbursement cuts will result in unsustainable financial strains on surgeons’ practices, jeopardizing patients’ timely access to care. In the near term, changes in the office and outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) codes adopted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will reduce Medicare payments to surgeons by as much as 7 percent starting January 1, 2021. We also anticipate that CMS will propose double-digit cuts in global surgery payments sometime in the future.

Coming together to combat this threat, and to protect and defend the interests of surgeons of all specialties around the country, national surgical organizations, including the American College of Surgeons, have formed the Surgical Care Coalition. The coalition has coalesced around a comprehensive, multi-faceted campaign to educate the public and policymakers about the value of surgeons, and to prevent significant reimbursement cuts.  

While we have engaged experts in a variety of areas to assist us with this effort, we also need your help.

In the coming weeks and months, we will ask you to take action in support of this campaign. Whether it is by responding to surveys, writing your elected officials, or penning an OpEd, your active participation in this campaign is imperative and crucial to its success.

These past months have been an incredibly trying time for every single American. Our country’s health care professionals who continue to fight on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic have had to shoulder an even greater share of the burden. Given the current situation and the role surgeons are playing in it, now is not the time to place further strains on the health care system with steep and unsustainable reimbursement cuts.

We will regularly update you on the coalition’s progress, but in the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions. 

All the best,

Valerie W. Rusch MD, FACS
President, American College of Surgeons
 
Beth H. Sutton, MD, FACS
Chair, Board of Regents, American College of Surgeons
 
L. Scott Levin, MD, FACS
Vice-Chair, Board of Regents, American College of Surgeons
 
David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS
Executive Director, American College of Surgeons

Gary L. Timmerman, MD, FACS
Chair, Health Policy and Advocacy Group, American College of Surgeons

As hospitals and surgeons across the nation resume elective operations, they face yet another challenge: patients who are avoiding hospitals and other health care centers until they are certain the COVID-19 pandemic has ended. An AJC (Atlanta Journal Constitution) article notes that it is not only patients who can now undergo operations that were postponed during the peak of the pandemic who are avoiding health care facilities, but also patients who are experiencing symptoms of impending cardiac arrest, stroke, and other conditions that typically would warrant a trip to the emergency department.

As this article notes, the problem extends to all parts of the country, with patients delaying treatment only to wind up with a much more severe medical condition that requires more costly care or, worse yet, that ends in premature mortality.

It is our responsibility as health care professionals to assure patients that our institutions and offices are clean and safe places where the strictest standards of care are followed. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) urges its members to explain the evidence-based protocols that they have put in place to ensure the delivery of optimal care.

https://www.facs.org/covid-19/newsletter/050520

The intent of this newsletter is to provide readers with a summary of the American College of Surgeons’ (ACS) activities related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We summarize clinical guidance and issues, updates on promising therapies, recommendations and information on the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), links to peer-reviewed literature, resources to help surgeons maintain their well-being, and details about educational events. 

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has taken a toll on patients, their families, and on the health care professionals who are battling this pandemic on the frontlines. We anticipate that members of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) will find this newsletter useful in addressing the financial issues they are experiencing and that it will point them toward the resources they need to get through this difficult time financially and emotionally.

https://www.facs.org/covid-19/newsletter/042820

Various parts of the U.S. are preparing to incrementally offer surgical services that have been deferred until their state and local governments, as well as public health officials, were certain medical centers had the capacity and resources to care for patients with COVID-19 and those who have not been infected. To help surgeons and hospitals through the transition, the April 17 issue of this newsletter provided guidance on ramping up elective surgical care. This issue highlights efforts to help surgeons deal with the impact that COVID-19 has had on their financial stability and to explore new treatment options.

https://www.facs.org/covid-19/newsletter/042420

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) COVID-19 Registry is now available to all hospitals interested in collecting important clinical patient data for a disease about which little is known. Hospitals are now joining. 

The registry gathers data on surgical and nonsurgical COVID-19 positive patients.

The ACS COVID-19 Registry is a quality improvement program and has been officially granted non-human subject research status, which does not require institutional review board oversight. > Learn More