Acute Postop Pain Services

[Nivens]

Commented about this on the regional thread- curious what everyone thinks about these. I know the billing structure might not be there yet, but all of these enhanced recovery pathways (we have them for bowel, plastics, GYN-ONC, and CT) lean heavily on our acute post-op pain service to manage the nonopioid pain control and epidural, and the anesthesiologist that heads up the team is very well liked by both the department and hospital admins. One can imagine hospitals being very interested in the reduced LOS from these pathways in the age of ACOs. Seems to be an area outside of the OR we are actually make inroads (as opposed to, say, TTE OOOR).

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[kidthor]

Agreed... as long as we aren't acting as surgical PAs/NPs. I think the key is to focus on acute post op pain management and bill accordingly, especially when regional/neuraxial is involved.

I think another pitfall is creating ERAS protocols that we have no ownership of or credit for. Rest assured, the surgeons will take credit (and payment) for everything if given a chance.