Making the case for value of acute care surgery: American Association for the Surgery of Trauma panel on overcoming local challenges.

Acute care surgery (ACS) provides critical functions for hospitals through the provision of a diverse array of services including trauma, critical care, emergency and elective general surgery, burn, and surgical rescue. Health care facilities with established ACS programs have shorter hospitalizations, fewer adverse events, and optimized resource allocation compared with conventional models. Because of ACS's expansive clinical scope, diverse service offerings, and behind-the-scenes role in supporting the success of other departments, hospital leadership often struggles to fully appreciate the service's complete value. An important skill for the ACS leader is to effectively advocate for the ACS service and the patients served by the service to hospital leadership, armed with a data-driven understanding of the value of the service. A panel session at the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma 2024 annual meeting sponsored by the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Healthcare Economics Committee was held to discuss how to make the case for the value of ACS locally and how to effectively communicate the value to hospital leadership. Experiences, perspectives, and propositions for new research needed were discussed.