At the 19th Annual Ambulatory Surgery Centers Conference in Chicago Oct. 26, Charles Militana, MD, director of ASCs at North American Partners in Anesthesia and director of anesthesia at the Dorothy & Alvin Schwartz ASC at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., discussed the goals of anesthesia groups in ASCs.
Dr. Militana said one of the top goals of an anesthesia group is to achieve the highest quality of care. He shared four areas anesthesia providers should focus on to reach this goal:
1. Presurgical testing. Presurgical testing involves preoperative evaluation, risk factor identification, patient optimization and anesthetic protocols, such as preemptive analgesia.
2. Intraoperative management. Intraoperative management requires ambulatory-trained anesthesiologists; appropriate equipment, technology and pharmacology; and efficiency.
3. Post-anesthesia care unit. PACU care involves postoperative nausea and vomiting management, appropriate pain management and obstructive sleep apnea protocol. "You can have the most effective system possible and great surgeons, but if [patients] in PACU or when they go home have significant PONV, patients will view the procedure as more of a failure than a success," Dr. Militana says. "Patient satisfaction is key for ambulatory surgery center success."
4. Postoperative follow-up. Postoperative follow-up includes monitoring regional anesthetic cases, tracking quality assurance to determine the effectiveness of anesthetic protocols and tracking patient satisfaction indexes.
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Dr. Militana said one of the top goals of an anesthesia group is to achieve the highest quality of care. He shared four areas anesthesia providers should focus on to reach this goal:
1. Presurgical testing. Presurgical testing involves preoperative evaluation, risk factor identification, patient optimization and anesthetic protocols, such as preemptive analgesia.
2. Intraoperative management. Intraoperative management requires ambulatory-trained anesthesiologists; appropriate equipment, technology and pharmacology; and efficiency.
3. Post-anesthesia care unit. PACU care involves postoperative nausea and vomiting management, appropriate pain management and obstructive sleep apnea protocol. "You can have the most effective system possible and great surgeons, but if [patients] in PACU or when they go home have significant PONV, patients will view the procedure as more of a failure than a success," Dr. Militana says. "Patient satisfaction is key for ambulatory surgery center success."
4. Postoperative follow-up. Postoperative follow-up includes monitoring regional anesthetic cases, tracking quality assurance to determine the effectiveness of anesthetic protocols and tracking patient satisfaction indexes.
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