Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/771120
among top doctors about which procedures can safely overlap, and how much overlap is appropriate." The American College of Surgeons released new guidelines indicat- ing that providers should inform patients in advance if their surgeons are scheduled to perform overlapping surgeries. This is a complicated issue involving patient safety and consent, but it's an interesting exercise to compare both situations. An observer could fairly assume that it's apparently safe for anesthesiologists to bounce from room to room while cases are going on — and to be paid to do so — but not for an attending surgeon to oversee multiple sur- geries in multiple ORs at the same time for at least a portion of the procedures. Does this mean that patients are safer under the care of a nurse anesthetist than they are a resident or fellow? Anesthesia calls its MD-CRNA care model "team-based anesthesia" and "anesthesia care team." Medical supervision is far from perfect, especially from an economic standpoint, but it appears to be the perfect solution for what matters most: the safety of the patient on the table. • • • Speaking of double-booking, our staff photographer, Pamela Bevelhymer, RN, BSN, pulled off quite a feat this month. Not only did she take the photographs for this issue's cover, but that's her in (both of) them. She placed a stuff animal in the chair as her sit-in, set the timer on the camera and then pressed down the shutter to focus. She then ran to the chair, removed the stuffed animal, sat and posed. "It took me about 7 times to get it right," she says. Enjoy the issue. From all of us here at Outpatient Surgery Magazine, wishing you and yours a happy, healthy 2017. OSM J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 9