Mit Desai, MD FACS, Principal and CEO of The Surgicalist Group said, “A number of leading hospitals have discovered partnering with a surgicalist group that avoids elective surgeries and outpatient practices helps them stay laser focused on emergency surgeries and increased patient care.”
According to a study published by the US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health, the quality of acute surgical care in the US remains threatened by a shortage of surgeons performing emergency procedures because of rising costs of uncompensated care, liability concerns, declining reimbursement, retiring surgeons and lifestyle considerations.
“Our thought process when we started in 2006 was that our surgicalist model could improve timeliness of care, physician satisfaction, emergency surgery scheduling, continuity of care, patient satisfaction and revenue increases,” Desai said.
The US National Library of Medicine study’s results stated three surgicalists cared for 853 patients during 1 year. Patients ranged from 17 to 100 years of age and presented with abdominal pain (66%), infection (18%), malignancy (6%), hernia (4%), and trauma (3%). Fifty-seven percent of consults originated from the ED; 8% came from other surgeons. Mean time to consult was 20 minutes. A survey of ED physicians reported shorter ED length of stay, better patient satisfaction, improved professionalism and resident supervision, and better overall quality of care. Average waiting time for patients with acute appendicitis to undergo operation was reduced from 16 +/- 10 hours to 8 +/- 4 hours (p < 0.05). Forty-two percent of consults resulted in an operative procedure, and revenue increased as the number of billable consults rose by 190%.
The study’s conclusion was fairly straightforward: The surgicalist model provides a more effective way for general surgeons to provide timely and high-quality emergency surgical care and enhance patient and referring provider satisfaction.
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