David Grant Medical Center Receives National Honor for Surgical Excellence

David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., has been named among the nation’s top-performing surgical hospitals, earning meritorious recognition from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program.

This prestigious recognition reflects the medical center’s exceptional surgical outcomes in both the all-cases and high-risk categories.

For patients, the recognition means the medical center’s surgical and perioperative outcomes are among the strongest in the country, said Col. John Allis, an orthopaedic surgeon and surgical quality officer. Allis and Maj. John McKeon are also the medical center’s NSQIP champions.

“Meritorious recognition places our surgical outcomes in the top 10% of surgical outcomes of the 600 or so hospitals participating in NSQIP nationwide,” Allis said. “At DGMC, our patients are truly receiving some of the highest-quality surgical and perioperative care in the nation.”

Col. Jamison Elder, commander of the 60th Medical Group and DGMC director, emphasized that the honor represents a strategic milestone for the entire readiness mission.

“This meritorious recognition is a direct reflection of our team's relentless pursuit of clinical excellence and patient safety,” Elder said. “Surgical quality is not just a daily operational goal; it is a critical component of our wartime readiness. When our families and warfighters walk through the doors of David Grant Medical Center, they can do so knowing they are receiving world-class, top-tier surgical care.”

The recognition builds on a long history of clinical excellence at Travis Air Force Base. This marks the third time the facility has been recognized as meritorious in both categories, and the seventh time overall since the program started for the Department of War in 2015, Allis said.

The medical center was one of two Defense Health Agency hospitals recognized this year, alongside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

ACS NSQIP Defined

ACS NSQIP is a nationally validated quality-improvement program that tracks outcomes for inpatient and outpatient surgical patients for 30 days post-surgery. The program risk-adjusts results to account for differences in patient health, surgical complexity, and acuity, enabling participating hospitals to compare performance and identify opportunities to improve care.

To determine meritorious standing, the ACS recognition program evaluates hospitals using composite quality scores in both all-cases and high-risk categories. The scores incorporate 30-day outcomes in eight key clinical areas: mortality, cardiac incidents, pneumonia, unplanned intubation, ventilator use lasting more than 48 hours, renal failure, surgical-site infections, and urinary tract infections.

Near Real-Time Intervention and Strategic Care

While ACS provides participating hospitals with semiannual performance reports, David Grant Medical Center’s surgical team takes a proactive approach year-round.

“Semiannual reports come out only twice a year,” Allis said. “Instead, the team at DGMC uses near-real-time analysis of the surgical clinical nurse reviewers’ data to identify trends and take action to help prevent future complications.”

Allis passed on high praise for the center’s two NSQIP surgical clinical nurse reviewers, Constance Smith and Valerie Roldan.

“Without their very detailed continuous review and compilation of surgical data for NSQIP, we would be unable to identify trends and take action to prevent future complications,” he said.

The medical center’s efforts include following evidence-based practices to reduce surgical complications, particularly surgical-site infections. David Grant has championed the Defense Health Agency’s Surgical Site Infection Practice Recommendation, published in November 2023, and has already seen excellent results, Allis said.

The medical center is also working to expand the use of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery principles, an evidence-based approach designed to support recovery and reduce complications after surgery.

Allis said David Grant’s experience caring for complex surgical patients also strengthens its ability to manage high-risk procedures. Through a strategic partnership with Northern California Veterans Affairs, the medical center provides care for veterans, including patients with complex surgical conditions.

“Taking care of complex cases on a regular basis sharpens the entire team and leads to better outcomes,” Allis said.

A Hospital-Wide Effort

Allis credits the achievement to the broader clinical and support staff throughout the medical center, noting that top-tier metrics require immense hospital-wide coordination.

“Surgery is definitely a team sport — this recognition could not be obtained without the tremendous work of everyone involved from the moment the patient first enters the hospital,” he said.

He praised the contributions of clinic staff, radiology and laboratory personnel, nurses, surgical technicians, emergency department and primary care teams, housekeepers, maintenance workers, administrators and environmental-support staff.

Allis said the award ultimately reflects a patient-first environment where military medical professionals live out their core principles.

“The culture at DGMC is so important to receiving and sustaining this recognition,” Allis said. “The patient comes first at DGMC. As a hospital, we truly live by the Air Force core values of integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do.”

“Driven by wartime readiness requirements, sustained by rigorous standards and strengthened by strategic partnerships with key civilian institutions across the nation, surgical care in the Military Health System is second to none,” he said.

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