Verified Hospitals Show Lower Emergency Surgery Deaths

A JAMA Surgery analysis links ACS verification of emergency general surgery programs to lower mortality and shorter hospital stays.

Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Nutrition

Verified Hospitals Show Lower Emergency Surgery Deaths

A study published November 4, 2026 in JAMA Surgery found that hospitals earning American College of Surgeons Emergency General Surgery Verification had lower 30-day death rates and shorter hospital stays. The analysis covered more than 20,000 patients at 55 hospitals, including five that became verified during the study period.

Why it matters

Emergency general surgery patients are often high-risk, and the findings suggest that structured standards and infrastructure can improve outcomes. The results point to verification as a possible tool for improving care quality across U.S. hospitals.

The analysis compared outcomes across 21,858 patients treated between July 2023 and December 2024 at five hospitals that became verified and 50 that did not. Median time from admission to surgery fell from 31.9 hours to 21.2 hours at verified hospitals, though the study does not establish how much of this change is attributable to verification alone.

The players

American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a professional association of surgeons that developed the Emergency General Surgery Verification Program and sets standards for surgical care quality.

JAMA Surgery

JAMA Surgery is a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Medical Association that features research on surgical practice and outcomes.

The details

Researchers examined outcome changes after five hospitals earned verification and compared them with changes at 50 non-verified hospitals using a difference-in-differences approach that accounts for shared trends. Hospitals seeking the ACS Emergency General Surgery Verification, developed in 2022 with the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, must meet 43 standards covering infrastructure and management of high-risk patients.

2022: ACS develops the Emergency General Surgery Verification Program.
July 2023 to December 2024: Study period for patient data.
November 4, 2026: JAMA Surgery publishes the analysis.

Health Landscape

The findings extend the American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, which has tracked surgical outcomes across hospitals for decades. They suggest that formal verification programs, rather than data reporting alone, may move the needle on high-risk emergency surgery care.

Patients facing emergency surgery may benefit from asking whether their hospital holds ACS emergency general surgery verification. The study shows shorter waits for surgery and fewer days in the hospital at verified facilities.

The takeaway

Verification programs appear to offer a measurable path to safer emergency surgery care. Patients and families can ask hospitals whether they hold this accreditation when planning for urgent procedures.