Physicians and policy makers gather to improve surgical services in BC

Physicians play an important role as leaders and partners in building a stronger health care system. That was once again evident with over 200 specialists, GPs, surgical team members, policy makers and patients gathered at the BC Summit on Surgical Improvement held January 22nd in Vancouver. 

The purpose of the Summit was to learn about, discuss and expand on how we improve surgical services in BC so that patients recover as quickly as possible through safe, efficient and effective pre-op, operative and post-operative care. Participants looked at some of the great work happening in BC, including the adoption and spread of Enhanced Recovery care pathways,  and discussed how to move this work forward to drive further change.

Key areas for discussion included:

Pre-Surgical Optimization - Integrate and coordinate care across providers to enhance the surgical patient’s experience and outcomes, by exploring:

• The role of patients, GPs, Surgeons, Anesthesiologists, other physician and non-physician supports
• Optimizing surgical patients, particularly with treatment of anemia, glycemic control, smoking cessation, nutrition and exercise

Enhanced Recovery - Build on successes and positive patient outcomes experienced by surgical teams that have adopted Enhanced Recovery care pathways to:

• Spread ERAS for new sites, get up to speed and share solutions for adopting ERAS for colorectal surgery

Anesthesiologist Dr. Karen Wong said:  

“It’s been very valuable to learn from all the other disciplines because we are all very good at what we do, but we haven’t yet developed perspective for each other’s work and how we can all fit together.”

The one-day summit was organized by the Specialist Services Committee, along with the Shared Care Committee and GP Services Committee (partnerships of Doctors of BC and the BC government) and the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council.  It’s an example of how the Joint Collaborative Committees are working to support physician leadership and  develop partnerships to improve our health care system so that patients receive quality care.

You can peruse the presentations, see a short video with participants talking about the importance of the day and find out more here.