American College of Surgeons Children’s Surgery Verification and Quality Improvement Program

Pediatric anesthesiologists have advocated for a safe perioperative environment specifically designed for children for almost 20 years.^1,2  Subsequent large cohort studies have demonstrated that children who undergo surgery in specialized children’s surgery centers have better outcomes than children who undergo the same surgery in a general hospital.^3,4  An ad hoc task force of pediatric surgical and medical specialists from various disciplines was first convened in May 2012 to consider how to “optimize the delivery of children’s surgical care in today’s cometitive national healthcare environment.” This initiative was conceived by members of the American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) in order to “match every child’s individual surgical needs with a care environment that has optimal pediatric resources” and has been led by Dr. Keith Oldham, Surgeon-in-Chief at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Drs. Lynn Martin, Jay Deshpande and Connie Houck initially served as pediatric anesthesiology representa-tives to...