Military Health System Surgical Quality Consortium Convenes in Chicago

The Military Health System Strategic Partnership ACS (MHSSPACS) hosted the 9th annual Military Health System Surgical Quality Consortium at ACS Headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, February 26–28. The successful event highlighted the breadth of surgical quality activities across the Military Health System (MHS).

“The conference emphasized the mutual commitment of the MHS and the ACS to a single acceptable standard in the care of the surgical patient, whether that patient is in an academic medical center, a military treatment facility, or a tent,” said Commander Eric Twerdahl, MD, FACS, surgical quality officer at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and associate chair of surgery for quality at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, both in Bethesda, Maryland.

The featured event offered a high-level overview of quality emphasis of the Defense Health Agency by Paul Cordts, MD, FACS, its chief medical officer, and the Navy Bureau of Medicine by Navy Surgeon General Rear Admiral Darin K. Via, MD, followed by a "fireside chat" to discuss their perspectives on military medicine and military civilian partnerships.

The conference also focused on the value of the Department of Defense-National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Collaborative efforts to foster sharing of lessons learned in surgical quality across the military medical treatment facilities to decrease surgical complications and improve outcomes.

Colonel (Ret.) Brian J. Eastridge, MD, FACS, Medical Director of MHSSPACS, Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, ACS Executive Director & CEO, and Michael J. Sutherland, MD, MBA, FACS, Director of the Division of Member Services, offered remarks at the event, in addition to talks by several military surgeons and other associated military QI personnel.

Many of the pragmatic presentations of quality measures and quality improvement projects will undoubtedly serve to improve the quality of healthcare across the MHS.