In a speech filled with compassion and focused on practicality given during Convocation at the ACS Clinical Congress in San Francisco, newly installed ACS President Beth H. Sutton, MD, FACS, shared her vision for her presidential year.
“Our healthcare system has many aspects in need of improvement, and surgeons of all specialties, working together, can make it better for our patients and ourselves,” Dr. Sutton said.
Her speech described many logistical and administrative challenges to delivering high-quality surgical care, ranging from prior authorization denials and strict productivity limits to “the loss of autonomy, lack of adequate staff support, endless administrative tasks, and financial pressures that can erode the joy we take from our relationships with our patients and with each other.”
Raising the history of the ACS, Dr. Sutton compared this year’s cohort of Fellows, inducted at Convocation, with the first Fellows of the ACS. Remarkably, both groups had approximately the same percentage of general surgeons (57%) versus surgeons in other disciplines (43%). However, Dr. Sutton noted, in contrast to the environment a century ago, general and specialist surgeons now faced sub-specialization that splinters surgeons into many healthcare associations.
She then expressed her view that an emphasis among surgeons to unite across all specialties may ameliorate the challenges surgeons face today: “Why should you join me in feeling an intense connection with and responsibility to surgical colleagues in disciplines other than our own? Because we and our patients need each other. We surgeons need each other to care for individual patients.”
Indeed, Dr. Sutton said, “the essential elements required for us as surgeons to do our duty to the patient are common to all surgical specialties,” including prompt access to care, coordination between specialties, quality improvement initiatives, and adequate communication between rural and tertiary centers.
“Only if all surgeons ally together to be advocates for each other and our patients will these critical requirements be preserved,” she said.
Since its founding in 1913, the ACS has worked to enhance surgeons’ careers and patient outcomes in all surgical disciplines, practice types, career stages, and geographic locations. Dr. Sutton described this history and noted the ongoing work at the ACS to educate, advocate for, and uplift surgeons.
The point of all these efforts, she explained, is not merely to enhance the power or well-being of practicing surgeons. Rather, she pressed for compassionate, emotionally responsive care for all patients, advising surgeons to consider how they wish to be treated, saying, “We must be the patient’s teacher and guide, and keep always in mind that really, we work for no one else.”
The full Convocation ceremony is available online. The address also is available as episode 45 on The House of Surgery podcast.
Dr. Sutton maintained a long-standing private practice in general surgery in Wichita Falls, Texas. She earned a medical degree from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and completed a surgical internship at St. Paul Hospital at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and a general surgery residency at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas.
She has been a steadfast leader within the ACS for many years. After serving as a president of the North Texas ACS Chapter, a past Governor-at-Large representing North Texas, and a past member of the Board of Governors Executive Committee, she was a member of the Board of Regents (BoR) for a decade, as well as BoR Chair for 1 year.
Dr. Sutton also has held leadership positions for numerous other organizations. As a result of her leadership and support of others, she has received the Distinguished Alumna in General Surgery Award from her former residency program at Scott and White Memorial Hospital, the Association of Women Surgeons Foundation Nina Starr Braunwald Award, among other prestigious recognitions.
