USU-Walter Reed Surgical Team Earns National Recognition for Exceptional Patient Outcomes
USU-Walter Reed surgical team earns national recognition for exceptional patient outcomes, receiving the prestigious American College of Surgeons NSQIP Meritorious Achievement Award.
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U.S. Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Eric H. Twerdahl, part of the USU-WRNMMC surgery team, performs surgery in one of WRNMMC's hybrid operating rooms in July 2022. (Photo by Alpha Kamara, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center) |
March 13, 2025 by Hadiyah Brendel
Surgeons from the Uniformed Services University (USU) and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) have earned national recognition for their dedication to surgical excellence and outstanding patient outcomes. The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®) awarded WRNMMC the prestigious Meritorious Achievement Award for 2023, placing the joint team among an elite group of just 77 hospitals out of 609 eligible participants. WRNMMC received this recognition in November 2024.
Faculty from both the USU and Walter Reed comprise the surgical team. WRNMMC has participated in the NSQIP program for over 10 years, building a long-standing tradition of providing nationally recognized excellent surgical care.
The Meritorious Achievement Award is based on a rigorous evaluation of risk-adjusted data in the July 2024 ACS NSQIP Semiannual Report, which analyzed surgical outcomes across eight key clinical areas. The USU-Walter Reed surgical team’s performance placed them in the top 10% of participating hospitals nationwide, including both Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs) and private sector hospitals. They also received distinctions of "exemplary" in all-case morbidity, all-case urinary tract infection, and all-case surgical site infection.
Participation in the ACS NSQIP program requires hospitals to track and analyze surgical outcomes for both inpatient and outpatient procedures, using a data-driven approach to identify areas for improvement and enhance patient safety initiatives. Dr. Eric Twerdahl, associate chair of Surgery for Quality and Outcomes at USU, explains that WRNMMC submits approximately 1,700 cases per year, which NSQIP then compares to the roughly 1 million cases it receives worldwide. Twerdahl describes it as a continuous benchmark of their performance, both amongst their peers in the Military Health System and internationally.
“Being able to compare our outcomes to other hospitals in the country is a tremendous value. And like in most MTFs, that’s where we shine,” he says, adding that at WRNMMC “you have a lower chance of having a complication after surgery than you do at about 90% of the hospitals in America.”
Despite recent infrastructure challenges, the data reflects what’s happening inside the hospital – the expertise, dedication, and resiliency of the USU-Walter Reed surgical team lead to exceptional results. Twerdahl emphasizes that “the credit goes to the individual surgeons, nurses, and surgical technicians,” underscoring that no matter the environment, “the resiliency of military surgeons is being able to get the job done effectively and safely.”
