What is Operation Patient Access?
Operation Patient Access is an effort by America’s surgical community, including surgeons, patients and other providers, to ensure that every patient has access to affordable, high-quality, and safe surgical care when they are in need of it. As federal policymakers examine how to reform this country’s health care system in the midst of the worst economic crisis in decades, there is a growing concern that the current focus on cost controls will dominate discussions and decisions to the extent that access to quality surgical care will be compromised. Operation Patient Access is designed to help policymakers understand that: • Patient access to quality surgical care is at risk due to well-intentioned policies that had unintended consequences. • The surgical workforce shortage is getting worse and cannot be fixed overnight due to the many years of post-medical school training required for surgeons. • The shortage already has begun to hurt patient access to care by endangering rural hospita
