4 Ways Anesthesia Can Help Hospitals Reach Health Reform Goals

Two of the main goals of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are to increase quality and lower costs. Here are four examples of ways anesthesia providers can help hospitals reach these goals.

1. Increase patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction is a measure of quality. Anesthesiologists can increase patients' satisfaction by overseeing preoperative preparation, ensuring the patient understands the process for the day of surgery and managing postoperative pain, according to Howard Greenfield, MD, and Robert Stiefel, MD, principals of Enhance Healthcare.

2. Increase physician satisfaction. Physician satisfaction helps create a culture of collaboration, safety and quality. Anesthesiologists can increase physician satisfaction by improving preoperative care so patients and the operating room team are prepared on the day of surgery.

3. Boost efficiency. Anesthesiologists can drive efficiency as directors of perioperative care. They can establish policies to increase the rate of first-case on-time starts, manage the board to optimize scheduling and implement best practices to shorten turnaround time, according to Drs. Greenfield and Stiefel.

4. Ensure quality. In a surgical huddle, multiple stakeholders in the OR meet to discuss the day's schedule. In the huddle, the anesthesiologist is responsible for identifying patients with histories of adverse reactions and developing plans to manage these patients, according to David Young, MD, managing partner of Surgical Directions and medical director of pre-surgical testing at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Chicago, Nell Panten, DNP(c), MSN, RN, CNOR, NEA-BC, chief nurse executive of Surgical Directions and Cindy Mahal-van Brenk, RN, MS, CNOR, director of operations of surgical and GI services at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital.

More Articles on Healthcare Reform:

10 Considerations for Hospitals in the Aftermath of Supreme Court's PPACA Decision
What the Health? How Hospital Leaders Can Prepare their Systems for Reform

Chuck Lauer: 10 Observations on the Affordable Care Act and Our Future

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