Challenge Facing Anesthesia Management Solutions (Part 4 of 4) – “Time is Money”

The last of this four part series striking down the myths behind the use of an anesthesia management solutions focuses on time. Many facilities are of the mindset that by having their own, in-house anesthesia team provides them with the most flexible option as it relates to availability and time. However, regional anesthesia management solutions actually have the ability to offer improved flexibility as it relates to anesthesia services.

Regional anesthesia management solutions, such as Steel City Anesthesia, enhances the postoperative patient experience, which in turn, trickles down to all team members included with the case. Take this example, which is a fairly consistent one that facilities encounter. By decreasing the dependence on opioids, it thereby reduces the risk of nausea, vomiting and other anesthesia-related side effects. This basically enables the patient to skip PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unit) Phase 1 and transition immediately to PACU Phase 2. Eliminating this, which varies depending on the severity of a patient’s reaction to the anesthesia, lowers costs and other expenses that are incurred. If a patient has to stay longer, that means the opportunity to serve other patients is decreased, and because they are taking up more space, this increases the amount of tangible and intangible costs, such as increased employee wages and, more importantly, the opportunity costs of forgoing seeing another patient in that space.

Partnering with an anesthesia management solutions provider also shortens the time a patient needs to recover in a facility before going home. Did you know that, depending on the procedure, a patient can be out the door in as little as 30 minutes under regional anesthesia? This decrease of time, in combination with a reduction in health side effects and lessened post-op pain in the vital 24-48 hours post-surgery period, results in greater patient satisfaction. This is one of the reasons Steel City Anesthesia continues to experience 99% satisfactory ratings consistently from clients and patients alike.

Steel City Anesthesia is a dedicated anesthesia management solutions organization that drives to provide a turnkey, solutions-based approach to anesthesia management. This four-part series has shown that the utilization of an MSO for anesthesia services provides enormous benefits to not only the patient satisfaction, but costs, staffing and efficiencies that are otherwise impossible to manage in house.