The fundamental challenge facing hospitals and surgery centers is the so-called “triple aim” of improving population health, providing a better patient experience, and lowering per capita cost of care. The anesthesia team’s involvement across the entire perioperative process, combined with the fact that surgical care is often a facility’s prime revenue center, provides anesthesiologists and CRNAs with an opportunity to have a significant effect on productivity and profitability of a surgical facility.
It is important to realize that that effect can be both positive and negative.
There is a paradox that exists in some hospitals and ambulatory surgical facilities in which the anesthesia team has provided quality clinical anesthesia services for the patient, but failed to achieve satisfaction among physicians, nurses, or patients, or has been unable to meet the facilities financial goals. This situation illustrates the importance of the anesthesia team’s ability to understand and address both the clinical and business sides of their services. As a hospital executive or surgical center administrator, proactive identification of an underperforming anesthesia group allows you to correct the misalignment of goals between your facility and the anesthesia team, and avoid potentially serious damage to your reputation and/or finances.
The best anesthesia management companies provide effective and supportive leadership throughout the entire perioperative process. They understand the clinical, operational and financial aspects of delivering anesthesia services and will support a facility’s objectives of improving the quality of care, managing costs, and increasing stakeholder satisfaction, thus maximizing revenue and profitability. By working with the appropriate management company, a facility can benefit from a partnership that fosters the alignment of strategic goals.
To help you ensure that your anesthesia team is providing optimal care with sustainable business practices, Somnia has described five warning signs that help identify an underperforming anesthesia group. These include clinical inefficiencies, performance deficiencies, customer dissatisfaction, administrative problems and ineffective leadership. A problem in one of these areas often causes a ripple effect, deteriorating the group’s performance in other service areas. The optimal delivery of anesthesia services is dependent on each area of service operating at peak performance.
For a more in-depth examination of these five warning signs, I encourage you to read Somnia’s white paper The Five Warning Signs of an Underperforming Anesthesia Team, which can be downloaded here. Once you’ve read it, please leave us a comment below.
You may also access Somnia’s complete library of resources in the Thought Leadership section of our website.