Anesthesia is a rapidly growing field, with technological advancements and shifts to outpatient care redefining the roles of its providers.
Two anesthesia professionals joined Becker’s to discuss where they think anesthesia will grow next.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
James Doebele, MD. Pediatric Anesthesiologist at Lakeland (Fla.) Regional Hospital and Watson Clinic: The biggest growth opportunity for anesthesia professionals or group practices is related to improving efficiency, safety, and the ability to provide care to sicker patients on an outpatient basis, and managing our operating rooms with an attitude of ‘taking ownership’ of the perioperative processes. To be leaders in making all these improvements, partner with surgeons and hospital administrators, and use our knowledge and skills to continually bring safe, quality care in an efficient manner.
The growth of [enhanced recovery after surgery] techniques, the increased use of regional anesthesia blocks and multimodal anesthesia, will help these processes.
Also, the increased volume of non-operating room anesthesia cases will challenge us to bring safe and efficient care with new technologies. Those of us who meet the challenges and seek to constantly adapt and improve will thrive.
Jacob Yellen, CRNA. Owner of Sedation LLC (Albany, N.Y.): The biggest growth opportunities for anesthesia will increasingly center around outpatient surgery and ASCs. As hospitals continue to face critical staffing shortages and new ASCs emerge, cases will shift away from hospitals. This trend will prompt private ASCs to either establish their own internal anesthesia service or outsource to independent anesthesia groups. Savvy ASC operators will choose to directly hire or contract their own anesthesia providers to bypass the staffing challenges and high stipends associated with larger anesthesia groups. This shift will create exciting new roles for [physician anesthesiologists] and independent practicing, full-scope CRNAs, not only as clinicians but as directors and owners. High-performing ASCs will no longer view anesthesia simply as a cost, but a strategic partner essential to long-term success.
For providers who stay in the hospital setting, wages are expected to gradually increase, falling somewhere between current comp packages and premium locum rates. Hospital systems will increasingly adopt QZ billing models using solo CRNAs—even with [physician anesthesiologists] on site, simply because [Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act] compliance is no longer feasible amid the ongoing staffing shortages. Additionally, more rural hospitals will be staffed exclusively by solo CRNAs.
Finally, the growing demand for anesthesia providers will drive expansion in facility and educator roles nationwide, as training programs scale up to graduate more [physician anesthesiologists] and CRNAs to help meet the anesthesia workforce needs.
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