▲ (From left) Professor Suk-Kyung Hong and Clinical Fellow Gun‐Hee Yi of the Division of Acute Care Surgery at Asan Medical Center

A recent study has confirmed that the Acute Care Surgery (ACS) system, first introduced in Korea by Asan Medical Center, has significantly improved both the quality and efficiency of emergency general surgery, playing a critical role in enhancing patient safety in critical situations. Unlike the traditional on-call system, where surgeons juggle scheduled surgeries and outpatient appointments while responding to emergencies, the ACS system ensures that a dedicated emergency surgery specialist is on-site at all times. Once emergency room staff conduct initial assessments and basic tests, the on-site ACS surgeon takes over to make surgical decisions, perform operations, and oversee postoperative care.

Professor Suk-Kyung Hong and Clinical Fellow Gun‐Hee Yi of the Division of Acute Care Surgery at Asan Medical Center analyzed data from 2,146 patients who underwent emergency general surgery across three Korean hospitals operating under the ACS model, including Asan Medical Center, over a five-year period beginning in 2014. The result shows that the average time from arrival at the emergency room to transfer to the operating room was reduced by about 70 minutes, from 522.1 minutes to 452.2 minutes. The postoperative complication rate also decreased from 38.8% to 31.3%.

The proportion of emergency surgeries performed on weekends increased by approximately 12% after the adoption of the ACS system, indicating that emergency surgical care is being delivered more consistently regardless of the day or time.

The results of this study were recently published in the international surgical journal ANZ Journal of Surgery.