Anesthesia Business Consultants compared the average rotator cuff repair times per CPT code for nine busy surgeons and found significant variance in the average units per case.
Hospital administrators often look at operating utilization and physician productivity to determine anesthesia providers' efficiency, but ABC's study demonstrates that anesthesia providers don't have much control over those factors, according to ABC President and CEO Tony Mira.
The shoulder case study can help anesthesia practices make logical arguments to push back on hospital requests for improved productivity, he said.
"Our data clearly proves what anesthesia providers have always known when it comes to the efficiency of the surgeon: It is luck of the draw," Mr. Mira said. "This is why the anesthesia charge calculation was established as a formula."
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