Acute Care Surgical Services: Return to Traditional Surgery as Backbone of the Modern Hospital

Abstract

The acute care surgery (ACS), a distinctly different model for the provision of care to acutely injured or ill patients with surgical diseases, has shown great promise in streamlining care, reducing costs, and improving outcomes. This model arose initially from dissatisfaction within the trauma and surgical critical care community, culminating in a transformation of trauma surgery to increasingly nonoperative scope of management, and in the relegation of operative care to other “consultant” specialties. While the model may be seen as innovative, it is, in fact, simply a return to traditional surgeons performing traditional surgery, with added intensive care expertise. As such, this model has been quite successful. Still, more needs to be done to maintain the interest of young surgeons to join the ranks.