Anesthesiologist Michael Kellams, DO, observes how outpatient surgery and value-based care will continue to impact the anesthesiology field.
Question: Why did you decide to pursue a career in anesthesiology?
Dr. Michael Kellams: When I entered medical school, my background as an EMT had me focused on a career in emergency medicine. However, my first clinical rotation in my third year of medical school was anesthesiology and I was fascinated. I changed my mind before that rotation was over and I never looked back. I loved the blend of pharmacology and physiology and a specialty rich in procedures and quick results while helping patients safely and successfully navigate through a very stressful time in their life. It's very rewarding to earn a high degree of patient satisfaction when the outcome is favorable.
Q: How has outpatient surgery impacted anesthesia practices?
MK: When I started practice over 20 years ago, there were very few outpatient surgery centers and patients came to the hospital at least a day before surgery to undergo workups and preparation and stayed in the hospital for pain control and recovery afterwards. Now outpatient surgery is the norm. This trend has largely been due to advances in surgical techniques utilizing technology and minimally invasive approaches and advances in the field of anesthesiology with short acting anesthetics that have minimal side effects and the advancement of regional anesthesia techniques for the management of postoperative pain.
Q: How do you think value-based care will impact the anesthesiology field?
MK: Anesthesiologists have taken a proactive early response to the value-based care movement. It came natural because anesthesiologists took the lead in patient safety with the establishment of the Closed Claims Project and the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation 30 years ago. When you are focused on patient safety, high-quality care is the natural result. Most anesthesiologists now participate in the Anesthesia Quality Institute's National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry. This parallels the CMS Physician Quality Reporting System, which is now required to assess the quality measures under the ACA's Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. So basically, the only impact on the field of anesthesiology of the value-based care movement is that now we report these measures to CMS for value assessment for payment adjustment from Medicare under the Affordable Care Act rules.
Learn more from Dr. Michael Kellams at the 15th Annual Spine, Orthopedic & Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference + The Future of Spine in June 2017! Click here for more information.