Last-minute anesthesia service cancellations or staff outages can debilitate ASC operations and finances, according to Watkinsville, Ga.-based anesthesia management provider CarePlus Management.
Four takeaways:
1. CarePlus identified anesthesia pain points through conversations with ASC leaders and found that anesthesia scheduling is the most common concern.
2. Scheduling inflexibility makes it difficult to change start times or accommodate add-on cases.
3. When an anesthesia provider cancels the day of service, ASCs have difficulty finding coverage.
4. Many centers focus on addressing problems that are easier to resolve, rather than prioritizing anesthesia scheduling.
CarePlus is launching a content series to make recommendations for improving anesthesia scheduling, as well as credentialing, protocol, data collection and complex cases.