The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced significant updates with regards to its value-based care programs. Of these programs, MACRA, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, represents a highly innovative legislative measure to encourage quality care…
Despite earlier controversies, it is now more widely accepted that epidural labor analgesia has a causal association with maternal hyperthermia and maternal fever. However, the issue is complex given the wide range of etiologies of maternal fever, and the criticisms…
Anesthesia practitioners include anesthesiologists, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and anesthesia assistants. These providers often work together in teams to deliver perioperative care. Healthcare practices and facilities have flexibility in determining how they want to deploy anesthesia services including the structure…
Approximately 20% of the U.S. population, totaling over 50 million people, lives in rural areas. Unfortunately, only 9% of practicing physicians serve these areas. The resulting lack of adequate access to care and resources has increased rural populations’ susceptibility to…
This post is part of a series exploring the issues of ethics in anesthesiology practice. When considering the ethics of anesthesiology practice, most people would think in the present tense. However, this aspect of anesthesiology has a storied history that…
As discussed previously, the Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) model has vast potential to disrupt the standards of anesthesia care. In a follow-up to that discussion, proposals in the anesthesiology community are now suggesting a value-based strategy to address efficiency and…
It would be difficult and presumptuous to try to cover all the recent advances in the field of anesthesia in one article, but a few new developments which have changed the way we manage our anesthetics deserve mention. Those included…
Postdural Puncture Headache (PDPHA), as defined by the International Headache Society, is any headache that develops within 5 days of dural puncture and is not better explained by another cause. While the classic symptoms of PDPHA highlight a positional component…
Anesthesiologists are likely to encounter many patients who smoke cigarettes over their career. Smoking is an independent risk factor for surgical complications, even after accounting for its contribution to such chronic diseases as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and heart…
With outpatient procedures becoming increasingly commonplace, patients now have a variety of surgical settings available to them. Deciding between a surgical center and a hospital is an important decision, and determining which option is best warrants careful consideration. Surgery centers…