Anesthesia providers are increasingly drawn to ASCs for reasons that go beyond compensation.
From better work-life balance to leadership opportunities, here are four key factors driving that preference.
1. Work-life balance and environment
Hospitals have started competing by offering better schedules because anesthesiologists were being drawn to ASCs for lower acuity patients, better working hours and a non-bureaucratic, family environment, Angela Durham, vice president of ancillary services at Franklin, Tenn.-based US Heart and Vascular, told Becker’s.
This comes into issue, however, as hospitals can often offer higher compensation.
“As the hospital began experiencing the competitive pressure of the ASC attracting anesthesia providers due to lower acuity patients and better working hours, they responded in kind, offering equally appealing schedules that allow providers to achieve their desired work/life balance plus high rates of compensation,” she said. “The long-standing ASC value proposition to an anesthesia provider (work/life balance and a non-bureaucratic, family environment) is diminished as hospitals respond to supply and demand factors by leveraging their high payer rates to outprice anesthesia providers to levels ASCs cannot sustain.”
2. Autonomy
“There are anesthesiologists unhappy with the hospital systems or burnt out, because of working conditions, call autonomy and are willing to work in an ASC,” Krishna Jain, MD, CMO at Chicago-based APEx Health Network, told Becker’s.
This also comes into play with the appeal of 1099 compensation, which some ASCs can offer CRNAs, Andrew Hicks, a CRNA for the cardiothoracic division of the Columbus-based Ohio State University College of Medicine told Becker’s.
“Many CRNAs prefer 1099 compensation for its autonomy and financial benefits, yet are often forced to work through third-party staffing agencies to access these arrangements,” he said. “A practical solution would be for outpatient surgical centers and large healthcare systems to offer both 1099 and W-2 compensation options directly. This would not only attract a broader pool of qualified anesthesia providers but also reduce reliance on external agencies, improving consistency and quality of care.”
Physicians are also interested in the ASC setting. In addition to safety and savings, ASCs offer a uniquely collaborative culture.
“Surgeons love working in ASCs — they’re lean and efficient. We clean the rooms ourselves — we don’t wait for environmental services,” Janet Carlson, executive director of ASCs at Commonwealth Pain & Spine, told Becker’s. “Everyone pitches in, including the anesthesiologist and the surgeon.”
3. Patient care and efficiency
Many leaders also highlight that ASCs value anesthesia teams as essential to efficiency, consistency and good patient outcomes.
“The big opportunity for anesthesiologists is to be the leaders in ambulatory surgery designing the best approaches to efficiency, and highly effective postoperative pain management,” Eugene Viscusi, MD, professor of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, told Becker’s
4. Professional leadership
Christina Menor, MD, president-elect at California Society of Anesthesiologists, told Becker’s that ASCs can be a place where anesthesiologists step into leadership roles, sometimes better suited than surgeons because of their cross-cutting role in perioperative care.
“Anesthesiologists — by virtue of our involvement in all aspects of perioperative care and workflow — are uniquely positioned to serve as ASC medical directors, often better suited to the role than surgeons,” she said. “Partnering closely with our surgical colleagues, we can lead innovations that enhance efficiency, safety and patient outcomes.”
She also stressed that anesthesiologists can lead in EHR adoption, pre-op assessment design, supply chain oversight, and revenue cycle optimization, opportunities that are not typically available in hospital settings where they’re often siloed.
