Economics and Practice Management Issues Associated With Acute Pain Management

Economics and Practice Management Issues Associated With Acute Pain Management: "Publication year: 2011
Source: Anesthesiology Clinics, Volume 29, Issue 2, June 2011, Pages 213-232
Dennis P., Phillips , Tara L., Knizner , Brian A., Williams
The use of regional anesthesia (RA) improves cost benefit (hospital-centered) and cost utility (patient-centered) over general anesthesia with volatile agents (GAVA), based upon research in outpatient populations. To make the cost savings a reality, the authors recommend: (1) avoidance of GAVA or at least volatile agents, (2) adopting published postanesthesia care unit (PACU)-bypass criteria conducive to RA, (3) maximizing PACU-bypass rates, and (4) utilizing a block induction area. Inpatient-based acute pain services are not uniform, which makes cost analyses and comparison between practices unreliable. Additional review and commentary address surgical site infections, cancer recurrence, blood transfusions, and chronic postsurgical pain