culture change at hospitals and in health care systems that will allow
for the swift adoption of alternative patient-centered reforms, such as
communication and resolution programs.
ACS-supported legislation
In keeping with these health care reform principles, the College is
supporting several pieces of legislation that were under congressional
consideration at press time. Details about these bills follow.
Mission Zero Act
It is a longstanding priority of the ACS to establish and maintain high-quality, adequately funded trauma systems throughout the U.S. and
the nation’s armed forces. To this end, the ACS was a sponsor of the
National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)
report from June 2016, titled A National Trauma Care System: Integrating
Military and Civilian Trauma Systems to Achieve Zero Preventable Deaths
After Injury. The NASEM report outlines the steps necessary to secure
a national trauma system and sets the goal of achieving zero preventable deaths from traumatic injury.
The House and Senate have reintroduced bipartisan legislation,
the Mission Zero Act (H.R. 880/S. 1022), which calls for implementing
recommendations in the NASEM report. More specifically, the legislation would create a grant program to assist civilian trauma centers
in partnering with military trauma professionals to establish a pathway to provide patients with quality trauma care in times of peace
and war. This goal would be accomplished through grant funding
used to embed military trauma teams/providers into civilian trauma
facilities, including a $1 million grant to host military trauma teams
at eligible high-acuity Level I trauma centers and grants for trauma
centers to host individual health care professionals ($100,000 for physician or $50,000 for nonphysician providers) at eligible Level I, II, or
III trauma centers.
The Mission Zero Act was reintroduced in the House by Reps.
Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX), Chairman of the House Energy and
Commerce Health Subcommittee; Cathy Castor (D-FL); Representative Green; and Richard Hudson (R-NC) in February 2017; and it
was reintroduced in the Senate by Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-GA), John
Cornyn (R-TX), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL). The Mission Zero Act
was marked up unanimously by the House Energy and Commerce
Committee in July 2017 and the next step is consideration from the full
House of Representatives. The Senate companion (S. 1022) is awaiting
The College continues to work
to ensure that its health care
reform principles—patient
safety and quality, patient
access to surgical care,
reduced health care costs, and
medical liability reform—are
included in any congressional
compromise legislation.
