A recently commissioned Harris Poll Survey of seniors found that the majority either relied on themselves or a family member to help them coordinate their care across multiple providers. The survey also found a significant percentage of them saw at least three healthcare providers in the past year. While the issue of better care coordination has been addressed, to some extent, in the past, today’s value-based paradigm is placing that concern center stage once again. The goals of better quality care, lower costs, and higher patient satisfaction are every provider’s and every institution’s aim because together, they deliver the value the CMS is demanding.
The same survey also determined that most senior patients were satisfied with the support they received from their primary care physicians, or members of the respective medical staff. It also found they wouldn’t mind having more follow up.
The ubiquity of anesthesia clinicians throughout the continuum of surgical patient care places the specialty and its providers, along with their surgical and OR colleagues, squarely at the center of perioperative care and the Perioperative Surgical Home. Beginning with pre-op evaluations right through to discharge planning, anesthesiologists and CRNAs are well positioned to help coordinate care for in-patient and ambulatory surgical patients.
Anesthesia’s value extends beyond the OR, impacting quality, operations, and finances. In a care team model, the anesthesiologist’s and CRNA’s role in preoperative, intraoperative, postoperative, and long-term recovery care enables these clinicians to drive efficiencies, improve performance, quality and outcomes, and enhance patient satisfaction.
A recent post by a patient’s wife describing her experience and posing the same question appeared on KevinMD, it brightened the spotlight on the issue of surgical patient care coordination. Whatever the solution, there’s no doubt anesthesia providers will be an integral part of it.
Source: Betbeze (2016, December 20). Hospitalized Seniors Say No One Coordinates Their Care. Healthleaders.com. Retrieved from http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/quality/hospitalized-seniors-say-no-one-coordinates-their-care