“Not only is this a disruption to schedule and an irritant for physicians, it is a huge drain on the bottom line. Consider the effect of canceling 1 case per day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks of the year. That is 260 cases. If we assume the average reimbursement of just $1,000 to $2,000 per case, cancellations could result in over a half million a year in lost revenue,” said Paul Weir, Senior VP of Operations. Perhaps the biggest long-term impact on center profitability is the effect case cancellations have on the patient, and therefore their referring physician. For patients, a cancellation has a significant impact on their mental, financial, and physical health. Even small procedures can be stressful to a patient. Preparing mentally to walk into your center, go under anesthesia, and have a procedure performed requires a mental build-up. A cancellation means they must go through that stressful preparation twice – now with less confidence in your ability. Financially, they have taken a day off work – and likely a loved one has done the same to drive them to and from the appointment. Most people have a very limited number of PTO days to use for sickness, vacation, and emergencies, and to use one of those days unnecessarily is insensitive and damaging. Finally, the physical comfort issue. Have you ever taken the bowel prep? Care to do it for no reason? Then do it again? People change physicians for this kind of life event.So, what is the solution? Identify bottlenecks and eliminate them. CarePlus Providers find that most anesthesia providers do not participate in Pre-Op patient communication to help eliminate anesthesia related DOS cancellations. In addition to reviewing the patient’s procedure preparation criteria such as fasting, the patients are called to uncover the following issues prior to surgery:
- Cardiac clearances
- Patient record requests
- Patient drug interactions that may prevent the case going forward. These can usually be solved by suspending the use for a period of time
- Comorbidities that require special treatment
Most anesthesia groups do not participate in this process, which is why most centers have the daily headache of DOS cancellations.
To learn more about how anesthesia can drive operational flexibility and efficiency download our white paper here.
