The current state of healthcare has created a need for anesthesia departments that are flexible and able to weather many circumstances. We often encounter situations where the hospital wants to keep the anesthesia providers from the existing group, but the coverage and contractual agreements are no longer financially or operationally feasible for either. In many cases, the decision to consider engaging a national anesthesia company isn’t because the hospital has lost confidence in their group; It’s often because the hospital wants to help and protect them.
Here are areas where both hospitals and local anesthesia practices can mutually benefit from engaging a national anesthesia partner and what to look for when choosing an anesthesia group.
National Resources
Contracting with a national anesthesia partner doesn’t have to be a complete takeover that results in loss of local identity and autonomy. In fact, we often find it’s the opposite, where the hospital and anesthesia clinicians are even more involved than before.
Your patients are best served when top-flight providers remain in the community. In our experience, a local group equipped with national resources is best suited to create a sustainable model to deliver anesthesia services that are flexible and responsive to the needs of the hospital. These larger groups have invested in infrastructure and resources to provide advanced tools and technology to support providers in delivering safe and effective care. Having a national group as a partner allows your providers to focus on quality patient care and improves your data collection and reporting of clinical, operational, and financial information.
Recruitment and provider redeployment are other big advantages of national groups. During the COVID-19 surge, Premier Anesthesia was able to offer CRNAs and anesthesiologists opportunities to go to the harder hit hospitals from areas that saw less impact or had less volume due to the hold on elective surgeries. Even outside of a pandemic, a national group has an extensive network of providers all over the country and can quickly fill open positions with anesthesiologists and anesthetists.
Having additional resources also gives you, the hospital leader, more control of your anesthesia service at the highest level. Premier Anesthesia is committed to financial transparency and provides monthly or on-demand financial, quality and clinical metrics. Because you have access to more anesthesia information than before, you will be equipped to make smarter decisions about your anesthesia coverage.
Billing expertise
Anesthesia billing is a completely different reimbursement methodology from other specialties. It involves a time component and is not billed strictly in terms of volume of visits or procedures. Often, this places a burden on hospital administration to understand what impact operational changes will have on anesthesia revenue or what efficient staffing looks like. This is one of the reasons why Premier Anesthesia offers an advantage of years of experience and specialized knowledge that comes from managing virtually every type and mix of provider models. When you have dynamic factors on the ground, like seasonal adjustments or changes in your service offerings at the hospital, a group that has expertise in anesthesia can be an essential partner to help manage through changes in an organized, cost effective, and customer-focused manner.
Collaboration among leaders
Bringing your anesthesiologists and CRNAs into a national group gives your clinicians access to a network of colleagues across the country with whom they can consult and collaborate. At Premier Anesthesia, we hold an annual Medical Directors’ Conference where our clinical practice leaders come together for continuing education and to share methods and protocols that are working for their practices. This helps to build relationships and lay foundations for future conversations. Because of the size of our practices and our company, our medical directors were able to share experiences and best practices when COVID-19 was initially surging and they were being called upon as the experts in their hospitals.
To learn more about how Premier Anesthesia delivers national resources to local practices, please visit premieranesthesia.com/solutions-services.
If your hospital is interested in exploring a national anesthesia partner, or is looking for opportunities to improve your anesthesia service, contact us or call 855-220-3662.