If you are in charge of a hospital, you no doubt know the many tasks you oversee on a daily basis. With the many complexities involved in today’s modern healthcare system here in the United States, it has become increasingly important for hospitals to not only make patient care an even higher priority, but to do so in ways that are smart from a business standpoint. One of the ways to do so is by utilizing the services of anesthesia consulting, which can have a variety of unexpected benefits. If you are considering this option, here are a few ways anesthesia consulting can benefit your hospital.
Expanded Operating Room Services
For any hospital, the majority of its anesthesia care team is busy tending to various types of complex surgeries and trauma cases that arrive via the ER. As a result, other procedures such as endoscopies and colonoscopies are limited due to staffing levels. However, by using anesthesia consulting services, hospitals can then begin to expand their ability to increase the flow of patients, allowing them to become more profitable while also increasing levels of patient care.
Lower Staffing Requirements and Reduced Costs
If there is one area within hospitals that can be a significant financial obstacle, it is staff salaries. Since your hospital will always need to have numerous staff members on hand at all times, this can become an issue when times get tough and budget issues are at the forefront. Yet by using anesthesia consulting services, many problems associated with this area can be solved. For example, since these consulting services are paid for by insurance companies, your hospital will not bear the burden of paying for these services. As a result, staffing requirements and costs can be reduced. Since a CRNA will be present from the consulting service, this will likely eliminate the need to have an RN in the operating room.
Increased Emphasis on Patient Safety
While your hospital certainly wants to be as efficient as possible and see as many patients as it can each day, it must also place patient safety above everything. This can be done much more productively by using the services of anesthesia consultants, since there are numerous protocols put in place by the FDA and other agencies and organizations to ensure all anesthesia providers are properly licensed and have qualifications and performance records that can be checked on a regular basis. In most cases, your hospital can work with an anesthesia consulting firm that can schedule the same professionals to work at your hospital on a regular basis, which ensures they are familiar with your facility’s operating procedures.
Reduction in Liability Issues
From a legal standpoint, using anesthesia consulting services allows your hospital to have fewer liability issues. By using outsourced anesthesia services, the consulting firm is thus responsible for any issues that may arise. This can be crucial, since the use of these consultants eliminates the need for physician intra-operative monitoring and decreases the chances of medical malpractice allegations.
Increased Revenue
As these services are used more and more by your hospital, it will become clear one of the biggest benefits is increased revenue. Due to procedures being completed more quickly and patients having quicker recovery times, more patients can be scheduled for elective procedures. Because of this, more effective means can be used in areas such as staffing and allocation of anesthesia drugs, allowing increases in profitability as resources can be used more effectively and efficiently.
Continuous Quality Improvement
Once your hospital starts to use anesthesia consulting, management staff and doctors will be able to make excellent use of patient satisfaction surveys to assist them in focusing on continuous quality improvement. By doing so, your hospital and its staff can learn more about various strengths and weaknesses, allowing for better short and long-term planning regarding the use of resources and staff to provide higher levels of patient care.
