Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2022
A Call to Action: A Specialty-Specific Course to Support the Next Generation of Clinician Scientists in Anesthesiology.
Clinical production pressure is a significant problem for faculty of anesthesiology departments who seek to remain involved in research. Lack of protected time to dedicate to research and insufficient external funding add to this long-standing issue. Recent trends in funding to the departments of anesthesiology and their academic output validate these concerns. ⋯ Directed toward early career academic anesthesiologists who wish to gain competency specifically in the fundamentals of clinical research and receive mentorship to develop an investigative project, the yearlong course will provide participants with the skills necessary to design research initiatives, ethically direct research teams, successfully communicate ideas with data analysts, and write and submit scientific articles. Additionally, the course, articulated in a series of interactive lectures, mentored activities, and workshops, will teach participants to review articles submitted for publication to medical journals and to critically appraise evidence in published research. It is our hope that this initiative will be of interest to junior faculty of academic anesthesiology departments nationally and internationally.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2022
ReviewIt's Not Just the Prices: Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing for Initiation of Veno-Venous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation at Three International Sites-A Case Review.
The United States spends more for intensive care units (ICUs) than do other high-income countries. We used time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) to analyze ICU costs for initiation of veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV ECMO) for respiratory failure to estimate how much of the higher ICU costs at 1 US site can be attributed to the higher prices paid to ICU personnel, and how much is caused by the US site's use of a higher cost staffing model. We accompanied our TDABC approach with narrative review of the ECMO programs, at Cedars-Sinai (Los Angeles), Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière (Paris), and The Alfred Hospital (Melbourne) from 2017 to 2019. ⋯ Most of the cost differential was caused by personnel staffing intensity and mix. This study demonstrates how TDABC may be used in ICU administration to quantify the savings that 1 US hospital could achieve by delivering the same quality of care with fewer and less-costly mix of clinicians compared to a French and Australian site. Narrative reviews contextualized how the care models evolved at each site and helped identify potential barriers to change.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Oct 2022
Outcomes and Disposition of Patients After Case Cancellation on Day of Surgery for Reasons Attributed to Medical or Anesthetic Care: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis.
Many day-of-surgery cancellations are avoidable, and different strategies are used to prevent these costly adverse events. Despite these past analyses and evaluations of positive interventions, studies have not examined the final disposition of patients whose cases were canceled in this late manner. This study sought to determine whether surgical procedures canceled for medical or anesthetic reasons were ultimately rescheduled, and the time elapsed between cancellation and completion. In addition, the resolution of the underlying issue leading to cancellation was examined. ⋯ Nearly a fifth of cases that are canceled on the date of surgery are never rescheduled and, if they are rescheduled, the delay can be substantial. Although the majority of patients whose procedure are canceled for reasons related to medical or anesthetic care have resolved the underlying issue that led to initial postponement, a significant portion of patients have no change in their status before the ultimate completion of their surgical procedure.