Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

The Future of Knee Repair - February 2016 - 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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2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6 I f yours is a smaller facility that doesn't do general anes- thesia, you can save money on oxygen by buying a concentra- tor — the kind you routinely see in nursing homes. We used to have oxygen deliv- ered every month and, of course, had to pay every month. It occurred to me that there might be a much less expensive alter- native — buying my own machine. So I contacted both the group that provides our anesthesia — it's the biggest group in my state — and our state Medicare, and both said they were fine with the idea. The concentrator cost between $500 and $600, and by eliminating our monthly fees, paid for itself in a year. I expect to get several more years out of it. It has a port for a nasal cannula; I just use a new can- nula for each patient. The machine never touches the patient, and there are no refills, no disposables and no deliveries. The machine simply takes oxygen from the air and concentrates it. And of course I keep a backup on hand: a non-rebreather mask hooked up to a positive pressure valve on an oxygen tank — in the unlikely event that the power goes out and my battery-operated gener- ator doesn't work. So we're covered in case of an emergency. Daniel D. Michaels, DPM Reconstructive Foot & Ankle Institute We Did Away With Oxygen Deliveries • IN THE AIR Dr. Michaels eliminated expensive monthly oxy- gen deliveries at his podiatric surgery center. Hagerstown, Md. drmichaels@rfainstitute.com Ideas Work That

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