Somnia Anesthesia Blog

Next time you’re at the movies and are deciding between Twizzlers and Sno Caps, you may want to choose Twizzlers, especially if you have surgery planned in the near future.

In an effort to improve patient safety while providing the most-cost effective anesthesia care, the U.S. Air Force has instituted a new policy that allows Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) to perform independently based on their scope of practice.

Exceptional quality in the delivery of anesthesia in the OR is as vital to a hospital’s clinical and financial success as virtually any other component of a facility’s day-to-day operations. That is about as unquestionable and iron-clad of a statement as you can make in the healthcare industry. The debate, however, isn’t about the importance of anesthesia services, but rather, who is the one providing patient care.

The Office of the Investigator General (OIG) for the Department of Health & Human Services published a report a few weeks ago titled, “Hospital Incident Reporting Systems Do Not Capture Most Patient Harm,” in which an in-depth study of adverse event reporting in almost 200 hospitals disturbingly revealed significant underreporting of adverse events and incidents. The study reported that an astonishing 86% of Medicare adverse and temporary harm events go unreported to CMS due to a host of reasons including staff misperceptions as to what constitutes patient harm and unremarkable patient outcomes that were ultimately not affected by the adverse event. What’s more is that this report is on the heels of a 2010 study in which the OIG found that 13.5 percent of hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries experienced adverse events with an additional 13.5 percent experiencing temporary harm events that required treatment. So in reality, approximately 27% of all Medicare patients experience some sort of hospital related event resulting in additional treatment and/or prolonged hospitalization. 

In recent years, Barry Friedberg, MD has become the face of anesthesia patient safety through his informative, engaging appearances on multiple media platforms.  Dr. Friedberg’s 30 years as a board-certified anesthesiologist have provided him with a wealth of knowledge and first-hand experience that make him a respected expert in the field.  Practicing exclusively in office-based anesthesia for elective cosmetic surgery for almost twenty years, Dr. Friedberg has been at the forefront of several innovative techniques, such as the utilization of PK (propofol ketamine) anesthesia and the routine monitoring of brain activity during procedures. 

It is not often that you receive a caution against stopping smoking. However, despite medical evidence to the contrary, some medical literature supported the concept that stopping smoking before surgery posed a risk.

Health care organizations were not exactly jumping on the bandwagon when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) initially proposed its Accountable Care Organization (ACO).

In an attempt to gain in-depth feedback about the most commonly used performance measures around the country, the National Quality Forum (NQF) recently contracted with the RAND Corporation to conduct an independent study of healthcare end-users to better understand how these measures are being used and more importantly, how to improve the systems and processes responsible for the reporting of these measures.    

When a patient has a poor healthcare experience, there is more at stake than just an unhappy patient. The fallout could have serious repercussions to the bottom line.

It's here - video on demand for anesthesia.