Congratulations to Dr Daniel Hall and the Surgical Pause team who have received the 2023 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award in the category of National Level Innovation. This award recognizes projects or initiatives that extend beyond local areas to being implemented across the country to achieve national impact. Original projects or initiatives involving successful system changes or interventions that make the environment of care safer, or that advocate on the patient’s behalf. These innovative projects or initiatives may address new technologies, protocols and procedures, education, organization culture, legislation, the media, patient advocacy, systems theory, etc.
Dr. Hall and his team developed the Surgical Pause initiative, leveraging the Risk Analysis Index for swift frailty screening (roughly 30 seconds). This method reliably pinpoints the most high-risk surgical patients, potentially leading to a substantial decrease in mortality rates among frail Veterans undergoing surgery. Dr. Hall's research showed that the Surgical Pause decreased six-month mortality among frail surgical patients from 25% to 8%.