HCA Healthcare, a 190-hospital system based in Nashville, Tenn., is leveraging its scale to advance perioperative care, according to an Oct. 10 article from Michael Cuffe, MD.
The health system’s vast size enables it to improve patient care within and outside its network, wrote Dr. Cuffe, HCA Healthcare’s executive vice president and chief clinical officer.
With more than 1 million cases, HCA records more robotic-assisted surgeries than any other health system, according to Dr. Cuffe. Robotic surgeries are associated with lower rates of perioperative complications, shorter hospital length of stay, fewer readmissions and faster recovery.
HCA’s knowledge and experience with these surgeries, plus its robotics surgery database, is embedded into its Graduate Medical Education programs and shared with other health systems, Dr. Cuffe said.
Dr. Cuffe also highlighted HCA’s enhanced surgical recovery program. After examining more than 140,000 joint replacement, gynecologic oncology, colorectal and bariatric surgeries in 2021, HCA Healthcare found that care strategies focusing on nutrition, pain management and mobility significantly improved outcomes.
Implementing these strategies reduced average length of stay by two days and decreased narcotic pain medication use by up to 44%, according to the article.
Read more here.
