sive policies and payment
guidelines for advanced ambu-
latory surgical care.
Between more expansive
patient and staff safety protocols that will be a cornerstone of post-
COVID care and new technologies that will bring an influx of minimal-
ly invasive procedures to HOPDs and ASCs throughout the country,
the future promises to be an exciting time for anesthesia.
Expansive skillsets
CMS is providing funding and authorizing payments for cardiac
catheterization-related procedures performed on an outpatient basis
and increasing numbers of total joint replacements are being done in
surgery centers. In order to achieve successful outcomes for these
cases, superior anesthesia is a must. Here are just a few ways anesthe-
sia professionals are helping to advance outpatient care.
• Targeted pain control. Providing opioid-sparing analgesia for out-
patient surgeries, particularly notoriously painful procedures such as
total knees and hips, continues to be a top concern for anesthesia
providers. If opioid-sparing total joint surgeries are to succeed, the
right pain management protocols must be in place. Round-the-clock
usage of acetaminophen and NSAIDs must be the standard of care.
Anesthesiologists have been employing opioid-sparing approaches to
mitigate the side effects of narcotics and get patients up and moving
quickly long before it became as fashionable as it is today.
Single-shot regional blocks and continuous nerve blocks will play
pivotal roles in limiting the need for highly addictive painkillers in the
intra- and post-op phases of care as more complex procedures move to
outpatient ORs. Advances in block techniques and technologies let
anesthesia providers select the regional anesthetic that's most appro-
6 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U L Y 2 0 2 0
There may be minor surgery,
but there will never be
minor anesthesia.
