ASA Perioperative Surgical Home Model Saves Hospital $12 Million and Increases Patient Satisfaction

CHICAGO – Using the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ (ASA) Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) – a patient-centric, physician-led, team-based model of care – saved a hospital up to $12 million in one year and improved patient satisfaction, according to a case study presented at the American College of Healthcare Executives’ (ACHE) 2022 Congress on Healthcare Leadership.

“The future of health care hinges on value-based care, and the PSH is an example of a successful vehicle for health care providers to deliver high quality care at their institution,” said Robert Shakar, M.D., FASA, medical director at North American Partners in Anesthesia, Wilmington, North Carolina, and chair of ASA’s PSH Steering Committee.

Dr. Shakar oversaw the PSH program at Wilmington’s New Hanover Regional Medical Center (now Novant Health), which piloted in orthopedics and has expanded to a total of 17 service lines since 2015. During the pilot period, the PSH program saved the hospital $4 million with a single service line, while supply chain efficiencies and improved outcomes provided 2,588 additional patient bed days. After scaling to multiple service lines, the ability to monetize PSH efforts through a fair market valuation, which benefited all the hospital’s stakeholders, produced a return on investment of more than $12 million in a single year of implementation.

“It is the collaborative approach of multiple specialties that leads to excellent patient satisfaction with better outcomes and lower costs,” said Dr. Shakar. “All providers and staff became more engaged in patient-centered care after witnessing the improved outcomes.”

The PSH model is an interdisciplinary team-based system of coordinated care that guides patients through the entire surgical experience, from the decision to undergo surgery to discharge and beyond. It was created in 2009 and tested by ASA’s PSH Learning Collaborative, which brought together 44 leading U.S. health care organizations to pilot the PSH model, measure its impact, and develop innovative payment models to support it. The pilot programs have demonstrated that the PSH model drives meaningful and lasting change in perioperative costs, outcomes, and experiences for patients, regardless of the health care setting.

ASA recently launched a PSH Implementation Guide, designed to help health care professionals implement a PSH at their institution. Additionally, a free, validated PSH patient engagement tool with CME course titled “Patient Engagement Training for Perioperative Care Teams,” will be available on March 31 here, and guides patients through every step of their surgical experience with clear explanations of what to expect, questions to ask, and information to record. To learn more about the PSH care model, visit asahq.org/psh.

Also, at the ACHE 2022 Congress on Healthcare Leadership will be ASA President Randall M. Clark, M.D., FASA, Chris Steel, M.D., chief medical consultant at Community Business Resources, David Finley, M.D.,  at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Daniel P. Herrick, regional vice president, perioperative and interventional services at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health presenting a session titled “Strategic Approaches to Perioperative Services: Optimizing Performance for Surgical and Procedural Service Lines.”

ABOUT THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS

Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is an educational, research and scientific society with more than 55,000 members organized to raise and maintain the standards of the medical practice of anesthesiology. ASA is committed to ensuring physician anesthesiologists evaluate and supervise the medical care of patients before, during and after surgery to provide the highest quality and safest care every patient deserves.

For more information on the field of anesthesiology, visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists online at asahq.org. To learn more about the role physician anesthesiologists play in ensuring patient safety, visit asahq.org/madeforthismoment. Like ASA on Facebook and follow ASALifeline on Twitter.

#             #            #