Today’s healthcare administrators are consumed with challenges brought on by rapid change. The optimal facility management model is evolving from one that prioritizes healthcare delivery above all to one that rewards facilities for keeping people healthy and avoiding costly readmissions.
Administrators of hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers are constantly seeking ways to meet this challenge and at the same time, deliver more care to more people at lower cost with higher quality outcomes. Since all anesthesia professionals deliver the same base anesthetics, a care model that reduces costs is worth examination. CRNA-based anesthesia care delivers just that. In fact, a landmark study published in 2010 found that the most cost-effective anesthesia delivery model is a CRNA working as the sole anesthesia provider. And CRNAs are educated, trained and experienced in providing anesthesia care for highly complicated medical procedures. In fact, before entering a nurse anesthesia program, CRNAs already have an average of 2.9 years of critical care experience – the only anesthesia professionals who can make this claim.
A CRNA-based anesthesia care model also makes sense from a risk management perspective:
- Like physicians, CRNAs are responsible for securing their own liability coverage. The same legal principles that govern the liability of surgeons working with nurse anesthetists apply to surgeons working with anesthesiologists.
- Furthermore, case law supports the fact that surgeons are no more liable when working with a CRNA than with an anesthesiologist. Today, CRNA professional liability premiums are 33 percent lower than 25 years ago, 62 percent lower when adjusted for inflation. This is due in part to the fact that the care delivered by CRNAs is extremely safe.
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Latest Infographic: Learn more about CRNAs and Enhanced Recovery After Surgery
Below are numerous resources that clearly outline how CRNAs are perfectly suited to deliver safe, high-quality, cost-effective anesthesia care in today's ever-changing healthcare environment.
- Scope of Practice Laws and Anesthesia Complications: No Measurable Impact of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist Expanded Scope of Practice on Anesthesia-related Complications
- Answering Today’s Need for High-Quality Anesthesia Care at a Lower Cost (White Paper) Without Links (to use as a handout), With Links (for posting online)
- CRNAs: The Future of Anesthesia Care Today (Video)
- Changing Anesthesia Care Landscape (Infographic)
- CRNAs Education and Training (Infographic)
- CRNAs: Ensuring Safe Anesthesia Care (Infographic)
- CRNAs at a Glance (Fact Sheet)
- AANA Statement on the Most Cost-Effective and Safe Anesthesia Practice Models
- Educational Campaign Shines Light on CRNAs’ Value in Changing Healthcare Environment (Press Release)
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