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Worth of Every Penny - January 2021 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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6 2 • 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 A N U A R Y 2 0 2 1 A mbulatory surgical facilities have pivoted quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shown clinical teams are able to make a number of changes in short order. In this new world of must-dos, though, we can't lose sight of the should-dos that will continue to push outpatient surgery for- ward. Advances in anesthetic tech- niques, pain management and post-surgi- cal care continue to increase access to care for more patients. Good outpatient anesthesia care is based on a "less is more" approach: apply local anesthesia when appropriate, titrate medications to the lowest amounts necessary and employ just enough airway management intervention to get the job done safely. • Increased use of regional blocks. Local anesthesia produces longer post- operative analgesia by stopping pain receptor stimulation before it has a chance to "rev up." This practice is proactive instead of reactive, so fewer narcotics are needed to control pain after surgery. • Better medication management. The use of propofol and multimodal anesthesia has improved efficiency and patient safe- ty by decreasing adverse effects, improving patient satisfaction and decreasing costs. Most outpatient anesthesia providers continue to provide patient- specific dosing and titrating to effect. They also employ short-acting narcotics or other drugs such as ketamine and dexmedetomidine as appropriate to control post-op pain. • Improved airway management. The goal of deep sedation, which is increasingly used in out- patient surgeries, is to achieve suppression of patient awareness while maintaining spontaneous breathing. This is where things can get tricky. As the depth of propofol sedation increases, so does the occurrence of airway obstruction, which can occur for a variety of reasons: respiratory depres- sion, airway obstruction, laryngospasm, bron- chospasm, regurgitation or aspiration. A huge part of the anesthesia provider's job is maintain- ing adequate ventilation and oxygenation via a patent airway. Anatomy, head position and anesthetic effects all impact where and how airway obstructions occur, and also how well airway devices function. Even devices designed to alleviate obstruction often require a chin lift or jaw thrust to achieve patency. Keeping Pace With Change Stay current on new techniques and tools to ensure your facility thrives. Anesthesia Alert Roxanne McMurray, DNP, APRN, CRNA PUSHING FOR IMPROVEMENT Anesthesia providers in ambulatory settings use medications such as propofol to focus on patient comfort, rapid emergence and recovery, and timely discharges.

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