SAGES 2009 Annual Meeting
Surgical Spring Week Presentations

April 22-24, 2009
Phoenix Convention Center
Phoenix, Arizona

∇ Allied Health Patient Safety Symposium–
The Role of Non-Physician Team Members in Enhancing Safety in Surgical Care

Chair: Michael Holzman, M.D.; Co-Chair: Donna Stanbridge, R.N.

Along with exciting advancements in surgical care have come increasing concerns and regulations regarding patient safety. Recommendations from medical societies, governing boards, and requirements from third party payors have led to the development of national databases to assist our efforts to improve patient safety by minimizing patient risks. The goals and objectives for this symposium are to introduce the members to the design and role of national databases such as NSQIP and SCIP and how they can help improve our practices. Current standards in three commonly encountered challenges in surgery will be discussed as examples of how guidelines, evaluations and improvement in patient care should be incorporated into our practices.

Objectives:
After attending this symposium attendees will:

• Better understand how national databases designed for quality improvement are implemented and utilized for improvements as well as benchmarking
• Discuss examples of how common co-morbid conditions are risk adjusted and how we can strive to minimize surgical risk in such patients
• Understand how this information can be used for process and quality improvement