Challenge
Over a period of 20 years, Redmond Regional Medical Center had partnered with seven anesthesia management companies and had yet to find the right fit for its program. Although pleased with the quality of its anesthesia providers, hospital administration wanted to establish a long-term partnership that provided the needed management support to the anesthesia staff in a patient-focused environment.
Solution
When the hospital turned to TeamHealth Anesthesia, the incumbent anesthesia providers were anxious about another management transition. TeamHealth leadership, including TeamHealth Anesthesia’s president, began meeting extensively with the hospital’s providers and began by addressing the providers’ concerns. Soon, TeamHealth was gaining their trust, and the group began to coalesce into a solid team that was engaged with the patients, the hospital, and the community. In collaboration with hospital leadership, TeamHealth also selected an incumbent anesthesiologist as the new anesthesia medical director and recruited additional providers to round out the team.
TeamHealth implemented its Clients for Life program, a proprietary process that enables TeamHealth to fully understand the hospital’s expectations and goals for the anesthesia program through focused meetings with hospital leadership. The next step was to customize and execute a strategic action plan that included measurable benchmarks specific to the hospital.
Key points of the strategic action plan included:
- Appointment of a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) leader to help with daily departmental decision-making
- Implementing daily collaborative operating room (OR) huddles to facilitate optimal resource utilization
- Fine-tuning of the patient transport process with a focus on safe, effective patient hand-offs
Results
The hospital saw a rise in surgeon satisfaction, increased engagement of individual anesthesiologists, and improved communication between the local anesthesia group and the TeamHealth Anesthesia management team. The hospital also recognized how quickly the new group began achieving their metrics-driven goals.
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