Clinical care provisions in our health care delivery system are keenly focused on efficiency and quality. Surgery in the ambulatory care setting has been shown to deliver high-quality care in a more efficient and lower-cost setting, thus the number of cases performed in these settings continues to rise. This trend is also evident in the National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry (NACOR). The absolute number of ambulatory anesthesia cases continues to increase steadily (Figure 1), as does the percentage of ambulatory cases as a percentage of overall caseload (Figure 2). Anesthesia providers are actively participating in this transition of care to locations outside of the hospital and need to be aware of the many different regulatory standards, guidelines and requirements for reporting adverse events and outcomes in the ambulatory setting.
As the senior director of quality improvement for a large and busy anesthesia practice, I regularly see...