Anesthesiology clinics
-
Anesthesiology clinics · Dec 2015
ReviewExamining Health Care Costs: Opportunities to Provide Value in the Intensive Care Unit.
As health care costs threaten the economic stability of American society, increasing pressures to focus on value-based health care have led to the development of protocols for fast-track cardiac surgery and for delirium management. Critical care services can be led by anesthesiologists with the goal of improving ICU outcomes and at the same time decreasing the rising cost of ICU medicine.
-
Healthcare delivery and payment systems in the United States must continue to be reformed to address currently untenably increasing healthcare expenditures, while increasing the quality of care. The Perioperative Surgical Home is a highly patient-centered approach to care, focusing on the standardization, coordination, transitions, and value of care, throughout the perioperative continuum, including after hospital discharge. To increase the value of surgical care, any Perioperative Surgical Home model must translate, implement, and sustain improvements in quality, safety, and satisfaction, plus cost reduction strategies, throughout the perioperative continuum. Healthcare informatics, analytics, decision support, and practice change are central to this effort.
-
This article reviews the management of an operating room (OR) schedule and use of the schedule to add value to an organization. We review the methodology of an OR block schedule, daily OR schedule management, and post anesthesia care unit patient flow. We discuss the importance of a well-managed OR schedule to ensure smooth patient care, not only in the OR, but throughout the entire hospital.
-
Effective and efficient acute pain management strategies have the potential to improve medical outcomes, enhance patient satisfaction, and reduce costs. Pain management records are having an increasing influence on patient choice of health care providers and will affect future financial reimbursement. ⋯ In addition, nonpharmacologic and alternative therapies, as well as information technology, should be viewed as complimentary to traditional pharmacologic treatments commonly used in the management of acute pain. The use of innovative technologies to improve acute pain management may be worthwhile for health care institutions.
-
Adequate treatment of pain is of utmost importance in making uncomplicated the perioperative course for geriatric surgical patients. Effective analgesia reduces morbidity, improves patient and family satisfaction, and is a natural expectation of high-quality care. Pain treatment in older adults is more complicated than in younger counterparts, and great consideration must be given to age-related changes in physiology and pharmacokinetics. ⋯ Side effects must be minimized and organ toxicity avoided. When complications occur they may be more severe, and treatment must be prompt. Alternative plans for analgesia must be readily enacted.