The ongoing pandemic, in many ways, serves as a distinct reminder of unexpected challenges for healthcare facilities and providers. Here are three trends in anesthesia to watch for the upcoming year, as elective and non-emergent surgeries resume and new approaches to care evolve.
1. Value-Based Care
A value-based approach to anesthesia concentrates on enhancing quality of care and patient outcomes. When anesthesia providers take the time to interact with patients before and after surgery — providing resources, explaining procedures, and answering questions — patient understanding and safety are likely to improve, which in turn positively influence key performance indicators like recovery time and overall patient satisfaction.
The value-based care model can still be challenging to measure and track, but anesthesia provider groups and organizations like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will continue to define quality markers that will affect anesthesia reimbursement.
2. Collaborative Care
Surgical procedures are not performed in a vacuum; to improve outcomes, especially within a value-based care framework, they must be approached as collaborations among healthcare teams. Facilities, surgeons, and anesthesia providers will continue to work more closely together with the shared goal of providing patients with the best possible care.
Anesthesia providers can use their unique skillsets more in pre and post-operative care, helping to ease patient concerns, improve quality metrics, and contribute to patient-centered, cost-effective procedures.
3. Tech Advancements
Technological developments in recent years, particularly in robotics, promise to make important contributions to how anesthesia is administered to patients. Robotic anesthesia, which is delivered by an automated control system, can help support — not replace — anesthesia providers. For example, closed-loop systems can set and dispense the precise dosage patients will receive, while the automated systems in the machine perform manual tasks so providers can focus more on the human side of patient care.
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