UW Health earns new American College of Surgeons verification

MADISON, Wis. – University Hospital was recently named one of the first five hospitals in the nation to be verified under the new American College of Surgeons Emergency General Surgery Verification Program, or EGS-VP.

The new surgical quality program, launched in September 2022, was created by the American College of Surgeons and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and helps hospitals establish and maintain the highest standards in emergency general surgery. Emergency general surgery is among the most frequent types of surgery a hospital provides.

The verification program has been fundamental in creating a framework upon which to design the program at UW Health, to pursue process improvement within the hospital and to help focus attention and resources on the importance of clinically relevant data, according to Dr. Stephanie Savage, medical director of Emergency General Surgery at UW Health.

“When we think about the EGS Verification Program, we know that high-quality care to the emergency surgical patient is vital to the patients, to the surgical team and to the staff,” she said. “We are very excited to continue to provide quality care to our patients as part of the American College of Surgeons Emergency General Surgery Verification Program.”

An estimated 4 million patients undergo emergency general surgery procedures each year in the United States, representing about 11% of all surgical procedures and accounting for almost a quarter of overall inpatient costs, according to the American College of Surgeons

Unlike trauma patients, emergency general surgery patients have not sustained an injury, but rather have conditions that often require the same urgency of care as trauma patients, like soft tissue infection, gallbladder disease, gastrointestinal obstruction, pancreatitis, diverticular disease, appendicitis, acute gastrointestinal bleed, perforated peptic ulcer disease and incarcerated hernia.

The other hospitals that are part of the initial verification include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, University of Kansas Health System, Kansas City, Riverside University Health System Medical Center, Moreno Valley, California, and JPS Health Network, Fort Worth, Texas.

“Since the launch of EGS-VP, these five hospitals have demonstrated how meaningfully this program impacts patient care. The early adopters of EGS-VP set an example of enhanced surgical quality for other hospitals to follow,” said Dr. Patricia L. Turner, executive director and CEO of the American College of Surgeons. “We look forward to sharing lessons learned from these institutions as we welcome many more hospitals and systems in the future.”