The Future of Surgical Care in the U.S.: State Surgical Quality Collaboratives, Optimized Perioperative Care, and the Perioperative Surgical Home

With the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act currently unfolding across the U.S. and health care policy and politics dominating the entire media spectrum, nothing more accurately portrays the current state of U.S. health care than the military acronym VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.^1-7  And with U.S. health care expenditures on an unsustainably expansive course and 60 percent of these dollars spent on procedural care, the vulnerabilities of anesthesiologists, surgeons, nurses and others involved in surgical care are obvious. However, we feel that this is the most exciting era to be involved in the delivery of surgical care since World War II, and we are delighted that this issue of the ASA NEWSLETTER is dedicated to explaining this apparent paradox. Literature (most recently exemplified by the May 2014 issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia and the October 2014 issue of the ASA NEWSLETTER) focused on the...