Value-Based Payment in Ambulatory Anesthesia: MACRA, MIPS, and More.

Congress passed the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act of 2015 to replace the flawed sustainable growth rate system and it consolidates all pay-for-performance programs. These programs are intended to reduce health care costs but do not address the lack of funding for the social networks that (in all other developed countries) support better health and lower health care use and cost. These programs require reporting by providers about performance on quality, cost, and other metrics, leading to bonuses for those who exceed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-determined metrics and financial penalties for those who do not.

Unsolicited Patient Complaints Identify Physicians with Evidence of Neurocognitive Disorders.

OBJECTIVES: Determine whether words contained in unsolicited patient complaints differentiate physicians with and without neurocognitive disorders (NCD). METHODS: We conducted a nested case-control study using data from 144 healthcare organizations that participate in the Patient Advocacy Reporting System program. Cases (physicians with probable or possible NCD) and two comparison groups of 60 physicians each (matched for age/sex and site/number of unsolicited patient complaints) were identified from 33,814 physicians practicing at study sites. We compared the frequency of words in patient complaints related to an NCD diagnostic domain between cases and our two comparison groups. RESULTS: Individual words were all statistically more likely to appear in patient complaints for cases (73% of cases had at least one such word) compared to age/sex matched (8%, p < 0.001 using Pearson's χ2 test, χ2 = 30.21, df = 1) and site/complaint matched comparisons (18%, p < 0.001 using Pearson's χ2 test, χ2 = 17.51, df = 1). Cases were significantly more likely to have at least one complaint with any word describing NCD than the two comparison groups combined (conditional logistic model adjusted odds ratio 20.0 [95% confidence interval 4.9-81.7]). CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of words in unsolicited patient complaints found that descriptions of interactions with physicians with NCD were significantly more likely to include words from one of the diagnostic domains for NCD than were two different comparison groups. Further research is needed to understand whether patients might provide information for healthcare organizations interested in identifying professionals with evidence of cognitive impairment.

Practice management/role of the medical director.

Although the nature of ambulatory surgery has changed over the years, the ideal role of the medical director mirrors its earliest iterations, focusing on excellent customer service and high quality of care. These efforts are supported by 3 modern methods of quality management borrowed from industry: intentional process improvement, standard care pathways, and monitoring outcomes to determine the efficacy of each. These methods are critical to master in order to lead the facility and providers to the highest quality of care and service.

Local anesthetics in liposuction: considerations for new practice advisory guidelines to improve patient safety.

The Practice Advisory on Liposuction published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons provides a thorough review of anesthetic techniques and guidelines for surgeons who perform liposuction. However, there is evidence to support several changes to the anesthetic infiltrate guidelines that will improve patient safety. These proposed recommendations will have the most impact on patients undergoing office-based procedures, where dedicated anesthesia providers may not be present, but they should also guide practice in both ambulatory care centers and hospitals. The primary foci of the proposed changes include restrictions on bupivacaine use and creation of lidocaine concentration guidelines.

Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia consensus statement on perioperative blood glucose management in diabetic patients undergoing ambulatory surgery.

Optimal evidence-based perioperative blood glucose control in patients undergoing ambulatory surgical procedures remains controversial. Therefore, the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia has developed a consensus statement on perioperative glycemic management in patients undergoing ambulatory surgery. A systematic review of the literature was conducted according the protocol recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration. The consensus panel used the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system for providing suggestions. It was revealed that there is insufficient evidence to provide strong recommendations for the posed clinical questions. In the absence of high-quality evidence, recommendations were based on general principles of blood glucose control in diabetics, drug pharmacology, and data from inpatient surgical population, as well as clinical experience and judgment. In addition, areas of further research were also identified.

Management by outcomes: efficiency and operational success in the ambulatory surgery center.

Quality of care and service in health care can benefit from the use of algorithm-driven care (standard work) that integrates literature assessment and analysis of local outcome and process data to eliminate unnecessary variation that causes error and waste. Effective management of an ambulatory surgery center requires that leadership emphasize constant improvement in the processes of care to achieve maximum patient safety and satisfaction, delivered with highest efficiency. Process improvement may be achieved by simple measurement alone (the Hawthorne effect). However, as shown in this article, the authors have successfully used the implementation of regular measurement and open discussion of patients' clinical outcomes and other operational metrics to focus active systems improvement projects in ambulatory surgery centers, with excellent results.