BACKGROUND: Anesthesia services for surgical procedures may or may not be personally performed or medically directed by anesthesiologists. This study compares the outcomes of surgical patients whose anesthesia care was personally performed or medically directed by an anesthesiologist with the outcomes of patients whose anesthesia care was not personally performed or medically directed by an anesthesiologist. METHODS: Cases were defined as being either "directed" or "undirected," depending on the type of involvement of the anesthesiologist, as determined by Health Care Financing Administration billing records. Outcome rates were adjusted to account for severity of disease and other provider characteristics using logistic regression models that included 64 patient and 42 procedure covariates, plus an additional 11 hospital characteristics often associated with quality of care. Medicare claims records were analyzed for all elderly patients in Pennsylvania who underwent general surgical or orthopedic procedures between 1991-1994. The study involved 194,430 directed and 23,010 undirected patients among 245 hospitals. Outcomes studied included death rate within 30 days of admission, in-hospital complication rate, and the failure-to-rescue rate (defined as the rate of death after complications). RESULTS: Adjusted odds ratios for death and failure-to-rescue were greater when care was not directed by anesthesiologists (odds ratio for death = 1.08, P < 0.04; odds ratio for failure-to-rescue = 1.10, P < 0.01), whereas complications were not increased (odds ratio for complication = 1.00, P < 0.79). This corresponds to 2.5 excess deaths/1,000 patients and 6.9 excess failures-to-rescue (deaths) per 1,000 patients with complications. CONCLUSIONS: Both 30-day mortality rate and mortality rate after complications (failure-to-rescue) were lower when anesthesiologists directed anesthesia care. These results suggest that surgical outcomes in Medicare patients are associated with anesthesiologist direction, and may provide insight regarding potential approaches for improving surgical outcomes. (Key words: Anesthesiologists; anesthesia care team; quality of care; mortality; failure-to-rescue; complication; Medicare; general surgery; orthopedics.)
BACKGROUND: Anesthesia services for surgical procedures may or may not be personally performed or medically directed by anesthesiologists. This study compares the outcomes of surgical patients whose anesthesia care was personally performed or medically directed by an anesthesiologist with the outcomes of patients whose anesthesia care was not personally performed or medically directed by an anesthesiologist. METHODS: Cases were defined as being either "directed" or "undirected," depending on the type of involvement of the anesthesiologist, as determined by Health Care Financing Administration billing records. Outcome rates were adjusted to account for severity of disease and other provider characteristics using logistic regression models that included 64 patient and 42 procedure covariates, plus an additional 11 hospital characteristics often associated with quality of care. Medicare claims records were analyzed for all elderly patients in Pennsylvania who underwent general surgical or orthopedic procedures between 1991-1994. The study involved 194,430 directed and 23,010 undirected patients among 245 hospitals. Outcomes studied included death rate within 30 days of admission, in-hospital complication rate, and the failure-to-rescue rate (defined as the rate of death after complications). RESULTS: Adjusted odds ratios for death and failure-to-rescue were greater when care was not directed by anesthesiologists (odds ratio for death = 1.08, P < 0.04; odds ratio for failure-to-rescue = 1.10, P < 0.01), whereas complications were not increased (odds ratio for complication = 1.00, P < 0.79). This corresponds to 2.5 excess deaths/1,000patients and 6.9 excess failures-to-rescue (deaths) per 1,000 patients with complications. CONCLUSIONS: Both 30-day mortality rate and mortality rate after complications (failure-to-rescue) were lower when anesthesiologists directed anesthesia care. These results suggest that surgical outcomes in Medicare patients are associated with anesthesiologist direction, and may provide insight regarding potential approaches for improving surgical outcomes. (Key words: Anesthesiologists; anesthesia care team; quality of care; mortality; failure-to-rescue; complication; Medicare; general surgery; orthopedics.)
Authors: Kenneth C Cummings; Meatal Patel; Phyo Than Htoo; Paul M Bakaki; Linda C Cummings; Siran Koroukian Journal: Reg Anesth Pain Med Date: 2014 May-Jun Impact factor: 6.288
Authors: Linda H Aiken; Douglas M Sloane; Luk Bruyneel; Koen Van den Heede; Peter Griffiths; Reinhard Busse; Marianna Diomidous; Juha Kinnunen; Maria Kózka; Emmanuel Lesaffre; Matthew D McHugh; M T Moreno-Casbas; Anne Marie Rafferty; Rene Schwendimann; P Anne Scott; Carol Tishelman; Theo van Achterberg; Walter Sermeus Journal: Lancet Date: 2014-02-26 Impact factor: 79.321
Authors: Daniel N Holena; Emily Earl-Royal; M Kit Delgado; Carrie A Sims; Jose L Pascual; Jesse Y Hsu; Brendan G Carr; Patrick M Reilly; Douglas Wiebe Journal: Injury Date: 2015-10-28 Impact factor: 2.586