With hospitals today facing rising costs, staffing constraints, and growing clinical complexity, anesthesia models must be constructed with the evolving healthcare landscape in mind. And this may mean going against the status quo.
Effective anesthesia programs are grounded in flexibility, strong clinical leadership, and alignment with hospital goals. But without proven, adaptable strategies, it’s challenging for hospitals and anesthesia teams alike to envision how new care models can succeed.
Enter Sound Anesthesia and its forward-thinking specialty leaders—Dr. David Leachman, CEO, and Noele Morse, CRNA, Chief Anesthetist Officer. Together, they sat down with Becker’s Healthcare to share how flexible, collaborative models address looming problems and, more importantly, lay out the crucial buy-in needed to implement these beneficial models.
Dr. Leachman and Morse come at the status quo with a question: What is causing the unstable ground on which legacy anesthesia models are built? The answer is pressure from three directions, which creates a perfect storm of challenges:
- Workforce shortages. This widespread issue is the combination of increasing surgical demands and an aging workforce demographic. The number of anesthesia clinicians leaving the field is deepening a deficit that younger anesthesiologists and CRNAs cannot catch up with.
- Financial constraints. Compensation continues to rise for clinicians and locums, leaving less funds to cover revenue loss from surgery delays and cancellations.
- Regulatory evolution. Described by Dr. Leachman as a “regulatory patchwork,” programs are plagued by inconsistency in CRNA supervision, billing scrutiny, and ambulatory surgery center (ASC) expansion.
These challenges all point to the fact that a single anesthesia model won’t cut it anymore. Safety in the operating room is standardized across the board. Today, teams show operational excellence and differentiation through the care model they use.
“What we’re really talking about are collaborative anesthesia models,” Morse said. “It’s about building a culture where people trust each other and recognize when to offer support.”
A path forward begins with getting stakeholders on your side. The following roadmap outlines some key strategies to hit when building buy-in:
- Start with data. Presenting clear, undeniable data is one of the most effective avenues to achieve alignment when presenting a new anesthesia model. Shift the conversation from opinion to fact and make the business case clear and quantifiable with views into case volumes, staffing costs, and access constraints.
- Engage physician champions. These flexible care models are created with people in mind and require honest endorsement from the people who work within them. Identify anesthesiologists who are open to and understand the benefits of collaborative models—they’ll be a huge asset in showing their value.
- Site visits. Sometimes, seeing is believing. Taking the time to visit high-performing sites that embrace and find success with flexible care models makes new ideas feel tangible and replicable.
- Program pilots. Start small and keep team model updates rooted in outcomes data. In other words, baby steps. Low-risk wins build confidence.
- Continuous improvement. When people are at the center of your model, transparency and communication are invaluable. Feedback forums, shared metrics, and early milestone celebrations can go a long way in keeping teams connected to the mission and one another.
Every journey needs a guide, and Sound Anesthesia is uniquely positioned to help you take the first steps toward a more secure future. Our co-designed staffing and workflows align with hospital goals from the start, with shared accountability and an anesthesia model that can weather the storm.
Watch the complete webinar here or learn more about how Sound Anesthesia models could empower your hospital.