The traditional model of anesthetic care in an ASC is quickly giving way to a new way of doing it.
Phil Eichenholz, MD, CEO of anesthesia at Tacoma, Wash.-based Sound Physicians Anesthesia, told "Becker's ASC Review Podcast" that he thinks using anesthesia care teams allows ASCs to hit their marks in efficiency and patient care.
Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full podcast episode here.
Question: What drives the need for anesthesia care teams?
Dr. Phil Eichenholz: As [case] volumes have increased, and as the consumer demand has risen for efficiency and a very personal approach at the same time, increasingly the anesthesia care team has been the go-to answer.
If you're working in an anesthesia care team, it allows you to take the time and really give that personal care to the patient. The way I look at it is, how would I like all the important people to me personally, how would I like them to be treated? You can then give them that personal care and not feel like you're in this high-pressure intensity push to just get the patient asleep and wake them up.
The patients feel like they are getting that kind of Starbucks personal attention, but the surgeons are getting the efficiency of Amazon. They are two different companies doing different things, but they're both doing it well. And we need to try to take the strengths of both and apply that to the surgery center setting.