Newswise — The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA®) recently distributed a Request for Proposal (RFP), the initial step in a major initiative to develop a learning collaborative of health care organizations to improve surgical care through the Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) model. The PSH is an innovative model that will improve patient care and health care delivery, and reduce costs by implementing a seamless continuity of care from the moment surgery is planned, through recovery and discharge from a medical facility and beyond.

In October, 2013, the ASA House of Delegates voted to commit more than $500,000 in support and scholarship to jumpstart participation in the learning collaborative with a target of up to 50 participating organizations. The goal of the collaborative is to rapidly accelerate care delivery and payment models of the PSH, which may include moving away from traditional fee-for-service, but aligning incentives to improve quality while simultaneously reducing costs. Results from the PSH collaborative will be published and disseminated. ASA anticipates the results to reveal demonstrated improved quality, outcomes, management, coordination of care, patient satisfaction and decreased costs.

“ASA is widely recognized for its long commitment to patient safety,” said Mike Schweitzer, M.D., M.B.A., chair, ASA’s Committee on Future Models of Anesthesia Practice and vice president, VHA Healthcare Delivery System Transformation in Tampa, Florida.. “ASA’s learning collaborative is the next step in completing the triple aim framework of improving patient care, and health care delivery, and reducing costs.”

“Our RFP is looking for an organization to help plan, coordinate and manage the learning collaborative, to create an evidence-based ‘road map’ for other health care organizations to spread the knowledge and best practices of the Perioperative Surgical Home model,” said ASA First Vice President Daniel J. Cole, M.D., and chair of the ASA Perioperative Surgical Home Steering Committee.

Contact Celeste Kirschner, Perioperative Surgical Home Project Executive, at: [email protected] to receive a copy of the RFP. Health care organizations interested in participating in the ASA PSH learning collaborative are invited to submit a letter of interest signed by the hospital chief executive officer to ASA by February 28 to [email protected]. The letter should address the goals the health care organization wishes to achieve by participating in the collaborative as well as a general description of the organization.

The American Society of AnesthesiologistsFounded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is an educational, research and scientific society with more than 52,000 members organized to raise and maintain the standards of the medical practice of anesthesiology. ASA is committed to ensuring physician anesthesiologists evaluate and supervise the medical care of patients before, during and after surgery to provide the highest quality and safest care every patient deserves. For more information on the field of anesthesiology, visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists at asahq.org. To learn more about the role physician anesthesiologists play in ensuring patient safety, visit asahq.org/WhenSecondsCount.

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