IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Patients used to spend several hours, sometimes days, in the hospital following surgery. Now, many individuals walk out the hospital door less than an hour or two after waking up from procedures. The speedy process is due largely to fast-tracking, which involves keeping patients who are under general anesthesia in a lighter anesthetized state so they regain consciousness sooner.
Many hospitals and health care centers have embraced this new fast-tracking approach as a way to decrease staffing costs while maintaining quality care. However, a University of Iowa researcher, working with colleagues at Stanford and Duke universities, has found that the financial benefits of fast-tracking may vary among institutions.
In an article that appears in the May 1 issue of the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia, Franklin Dexter, Ph.D., M.D., UI associate professor of anesthesia, showed that whether fast-tracking allows a hospital to reduce staffing costs depends highly upon the institution's labor payment structure. Fast-tracking can possibly decrease an institution's costs because less staffing time is required. Patients wake up more quickly and can leave the operating room sooner. In addition, the patients might not have to stay in the recovery room as long. If a hospital pays its ambulatory surgery center staff an hourly rate and the fast-tracking reduces substantial overtime, the decrease in labor costs can be significant. If a hospital pays its staff a set salary, the time savings may not translate into financial savings.
Despite the varied financial implications, Dexter said fast-tracking is here to stay.
"From the patient's point-of-view, it's an advantage because it gets them out of
the hospital quicker so they can be at home, be with their families," Dexter
said. "From a hospital's point-of-view, even if large decreases in costs cannot
be expected, fast-tracking will increase the productivity of the workforce so
staff members can do o
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Contact: Jennifer Cronin
jennifer-cronin@uiowa.edu
319-335-9917
University of Iowa
29-Apr-1999