From reimbursement challenges and staffing shortages to shifting payer policies, 2024 has been an active year for anesthesiologists.
Three anesthesiologists shared their insights on the last year with Becker's:
Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Joseph Foley, MD. Medical Director of Perioperative Services at Marlborough (Mass.) Hospital: I think right now, the biggest challenge is balancing patient safety with operating room efficiency in the setting of significant workforce challenges. The COVID pandemic resulted in seismic changes to the anesthesia labor force that are still reverberating forward today. Anesthesia groups are currently challenged by declining reimbursement along with the increased workforce costs. Practices are utilizing both increasing compensation and flexible staffing models to aid in recruitment and retention.
Chris Hackney, MD. Anesthesiologist at Emory Specialty Associates in Atlanta: Anesthesiologists have learned just how valuable of a commodity they are to the medical economy. After COVID strained healthcare budgets, hospitals and surgery centers pushed to increase surgical volume to stay in the black. Many healthcare systems found staffing anesthesiologists to be crucial to making sure surgeries continued uninterrupted. If hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers wish to continue to operate at the highest surgical efficiency, they will need to find the means to employ anesthesiologists. And with increasing demand there is little hope to boost the supply of physician anesthesiologists. In the next 10 years, many physicians will seek retirement with a bottleneck of residency graduates unable to fill every spot they vacate.
Such an imbalance of supply and demand puts anesthesiologists in a position to take action to demonstrate their value. Already this past year anesthesiologists at Cedars-Sinai voted to unionize. Anesthesiologists at all levels must be collective in demonstrating their value and pushing for their voice to be heard.
Vijay Sudheendra, MD. President of Narragansett Bay Anesthesia (Providence, R.I.): The most important lesson for anesthesiologists in 2024 was adapting to and integrating new technologies and teaching approaches while addressing ongoing challenges in the field. This required a balance between embracing innovation and maintaining core clinical skills while navigating the evolving healthcare landscape. To stay at the forefront of their profession in this rapidly changing environment, anesthesiologists must be flexible, tech-savvy and committed to continuous learning. They must constantly add value to the patients, community and the hospitals they serve.