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Biomedical subjects

A Macario

Publications and source records attributed to A Macario.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1998

The impact of managed care on anesthesia residency training and clinical practice.

In this review, we attempt to summarize some of the complex issues surrounding managed care and discuss the resultant changes in anesthesiology practice and residency training in the USA. These changes have affected physician autonomy, job availability for graduates of residency training, and interest by medical students in the specialty. Anesthesiologists are focusing on increasing the value of the anesthesia service to patients, surgeons, hospitals, and managed care organizations, thereby securing the future growth of the specialty.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1997

Hospital costs and severity of illness in three types of elective surgery.

BACKGROUND: If patients who are more severely ill have greater hospital costs for surgery, then health-care reimbursements need to be adjusted appropriately so that providers caring for more seriously ill patients are not penalized for incurring higher costs. The authors' goal for this study was to determine if severity of illness, as measured by either the American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status (ASA PS) or the comorbidity index developed by Charlson, can predict anesthesia costs, operating room costs, total hospital costs, or length of stay for elective surgery. METHODS: The authors randomly selected 224 inpatients (60% sampling fraction) having either colectomy (n = 30), total knee replacement (n = 100), or laparoscopic cholecystectomy (n = 94) from September 1993 to September 1994. For each surgical procedure, backward-elimination multiple regression was used to build models to predict (1) total hospital costs, (2) operating room costs, (3) anesthesia costs, and (4) length of stay. Explanatory candidate variables included patient age (years), sex, ASA PS, Charlson comorbidity index (which weighs the number and seriousness of coexisting diseases), and type of insurance (Medicare/Medicaid, managed care, or indemnity). These analyses were repeated for the pooled data of all 224 patients. Costs (not patient charges) were obtained from the hospital cost accounting software. RESULTS: Mean total hospital costs were $3,778 (95% confidence interval +/- 299) for laparoscopic cholecystectomy, $13,614 (95% CI +/- 3,019) for colectomy, and $18,788 (95% CI +/- 573) for knee replacement. The correlation (r) between ASA PS and Charlson comorbidity scores equaled 0.34 (P < .001). No consistent relation was found between hospital costs and either of the two severity-of-illness indices. The Charlson comorbidity index (but not the ASA PS) predicted hospital costs only for knee replacement (P = .003). The ASA PS, but not the Charlson index, predicted operating room and anesthesia costs only for colectomy (P < .03). CONCLUSIONS: Severity of illness, as categorized by ASA PS categories 1-3 or by the Charlson comorbidity index, was not a consistent predictor of hospital costs and lengths of stay for three types of elective surgery. Hospital resources for these lower-risk elective procedures may be expended primarily to manage the consequences of the surgical disease, rather than to manage the patient's coexisting diseases.

Aged↗
PubMed1995

The demographics of inpatient pediatric anesthesia: implications for credentialing policy.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine the demographics of inpatient anesthesia care for infants and children in a specific region to determine if there were sufficient numbers of procedures to permit credentialing to take place, as a first step in understanding the consequences of implementing credentialing policies based on caseload. DESIGN: Retrospective computerized review of discharge abstracts. SETTING: All hospitals in northern California. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Surgical procedures and date of surgery were linked to create "procedure-days." Each procedure-day counted as one anesthesia case. Annual hospital caseloads (procedure-days) were tabulated for three separate age subgroups under six years of age. The proximity of hospitals with smaller surgical volumes to those with larger volumes was determined. Of the 205 hospitals in the region, 162 had at least one procedure-day for children less than 6 years of age for a total of 14,435 procedure-days (anesthesia cases). For each of three age groups studied--0 to 6 months, 7 to 24 months, and 25 to 72 months--85%, 90%, and 81%, respectively, of hospitals had caseloads of 1 to 50 per year. When procedure days from all three age groups were totalled, 59% of hospitals had less than 20 cases per year and 72% of hospitals had less than 50 cases per year; 86% of hospitals had less than 100 cases per year. Of hospitals with less than 100 cases per year, 75% were within 50 miles of a hospital with more than 100 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Performance based credentialing for pediatric anesthesia based on caseload may be problematic for many hospitals due to the distribution of cases: a majority of hospitals care for a few children, and most children are cared for in a few hospitals.

Anesthesia↗
PubMed1995

Pain outcomes after thoracotomy: lumbar epidural hydromorphone versus intrapleural bupivacaine.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate postthoractomy analgesia in patients receiving lumbar epidural hydromorphone versus intrapleural bupivacaine. DESIGN: A randomized, prospective, double-blind study. SETTING: A university-affiliated medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty patients undergoing lateral thoracotomy for either pulmonary wedge resection, lobectomy, or pneumonectomy. INTERVENTION: Nine patients received epidural hydromorphone, and 11 patients received intrapleural bupivacaine in the postoperative period. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Severity of pain was assessed using a visual analog pain scale (VAPS) (0 to 100 mm) at 1, 3, and 5 hours. Patients receiving epidural hydromorphone had a statistically significant improvement in VAPS scores. Patients who received intrapleural bupivacaine did not achieve a significant reduction in pain scores. Nine of 11 patients in the intrapleural bupivacaine group had "failed" postoperative analgesia as defined by a VAPS greater than 30. Only 3 of 9 patients in the continuous epidural hydromorphone group had "failed" analgesia. CONCLUSION: Epidural hydromorphone is superior to intrapleural bupivacaine in achieving satisfactory pain outcomes during the first 5 hours after thoracotomy.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Spinal versus epidural anesthesia for cesarean section: a comparison of time efficiency, costs, charges, and complications.

Spinal anesthesia recently has gained popularity for elective cesarean section. Our anesthesia service changed from epidural to spinal anesthesia for elective cesarean section in 1991. To evaluate the significance of this change in terms of time management, costs, charges, and complication rates, we retrospectively reviewed the charts of patients who had received epidural (n = 47) or spinal (n = 47) anesthesia for nonemergent cesarean section. Patients who received epidural anesthesia had significantly longer total operating room (OR) times than those who received spinal anesthesia (101 +/- 20 vs 83 +/- 16 min, [mean +/- SD] P < 0.001); this was caused by longer times spent in the OR until surgical incision (46 +/- 11 vs 29 +/- 6 min, P < 0.001). Length of time spent in the postanesthesia recovery unit was similar in both groups. Supplemental intraoperative intravenous (i.v.) analgesics and anxiolytics were required more often in the epidural group (38%) than in the spinal group (17%) (P < 0.05). Complications were noted in six patients with epidural anesthesia and none with spinal anesthesia (P < 0.05). Average per-patient charges were more for the epidural group than for the spinal group. Although direct cost differences between the groups were negligible, there were more substantial indirect costs differences. We conclude that spinal block may provide better and more cost effective anesthesia for uncomplicated, elective cesarean sections.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

A cost analysis of the laryngeal mask airway for elective surgery in adult outpatients.

BACKGROUND: Since the introduction of the laryngeal mask airway (LMA) into the United States in 1991, the device has become widely used in anesthesia practice. The purpose of this economic analysis was to use existing data to evaluate the costs of the LMA relative to three other common airway management techniques and to identify the variables that had the greatest effect on cost efficiency. METHODS: We evaluated four airway management techniques for healthy adults receiving an isoflurane-nitrous oxide-oxygen anesthetic for elective outpatient surgery: (1) LMA with spontaneous ventilation; (2) face mask with spontaneous ventilation; (3) tracheal intubation after succinylcholine with subsequent spontaneous ventilation; and (4) tracheal intubation after nondepolarizing neuromuscular blockade and controlled ventilation. We analyzed published clinical studies of the LMA and obtained cost data from Stanford University Medical Center. The best available estimates of the independent variables were incorporated into a baseline case. For each airway technique we derived cost equations that excluded costs common to all four techniques. RESULTS: Relative to airway management with an LMA, calculated values for the baseline analysis included additional isoflurane costs for use of a face mask ($ 0.12/min) and for tracheal intubation with ($ 0.043/min) and without neuromuscular blockade ($ 0.06/min). With a neuromuscular blocking drug cost of $ 0.21/min and an LMA cost per use of $ 20, the face mask with spontaneous ventilation was the cost-efficient airway choice for anesthetics lasting as long as 100 min. Increasing the LMA reuse rate from 10 to 25 made the LMA the least costly airway technique for cases lasting more than 70 min. CONCLUSIONS: If the LMA is reused 40 times, the LMA is the cost-efficient airway choice for outpatients receiving an isoflurane-nitrous oxide-oxygen anesthetic lasting longer than 40 min. This finding does not change if the cost of neuromuscular blockade or the incidence of airway-related complications is varied over a clinically relevant range.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Where are the costs in perioperative care? Analysis of hospital costs and charges for inpatient surgical care.

BACKGROUND: Many health-care institutions are emphasizing cost reduction programs as a primary tool for managing profitability. The goal of this study was to elucidate the proportion of anesthesia costs relative to perioperative costs as determined by charges and actual costs. METHODS: Costs and charges for 715 inpatients undergoing either discectomy (n = 234), prostatectomy (n = 152), appendectomy (n = 122) or laparoscopic cholecystectomy (n = 207) were retrospectively analyzed at Stanford University Medical Center from September 1993 to September 1994. Total hospital costs were separated into 11 hospital departments. Cost-to-charge ratios were calculated for each surgical procedure and hospital department. Hospitalization costs were also divided into variable and fixed costs (costs that do and do not change with patient volume). Costs were further partitioned into direct and indirect costs (costs that can and cannot be linked directly to a patient). RESULTS: Forty-nine (49%) percent of total hospital costs were variable costs. Fifty-seven (57%) percent were direct costs. The largest hospital cost category was the operating room (33%) followed by the patient ward (31%). Intraoperative anesthesia costs were 5.6% of the total hospital cost. The overall cost-to-charge ratio (0.42) was constant between operations. Cost-to-charge ratios varied threefold among hospital departments. Patient charges overestimated resource consumption in some hospital departments (anesthesia) and underestimated resource consumption in others (ward). CONCLUSIONS: Anesthesia comprises 5.6% of perioperative costs. The influence of anesthesia practice patterns on "downstream" events that influence costs of hospitalization requires further study.

Anesthesia↗
PubMed1995

"Blind" placement of plastic left double-lumen tubes.

A prospective analysis of placement of left-sided plastic double-lumen tubes in 100 patients is presented. Intubation of the left bronchus was successfully accomplished using only auscultation and clinical signs ("blind" placement) in 91 patients. Double-lumen tubes were positioned in less than five minutes in 84 patients. The most common problem encountered (30%) was initial intubation of the right main bronchus. Seven of these patients required bronchoscopic assistance to guide the tube into the left bronchus. There were four minor intraoperative complications due to DLT malposition that were recognized and corrected by withdrawing the tube slightly back in the bronchus. The plastic double-lumen tubes functioned properly during the procedure in all 100 patients.

Adolescent↗