Here six spine surgeons discuss the future of outpatient surgeries.
Question: What percentage of spine surgeons will perform outpatient surgeries 5 years from now?
Neel Anand, MD, clinical professor of surgery and director of spine trauma at Cedars-Sinai Spine Center in Los Angeles: 50 percent will perform outpatient surgeries five years from now.
John Regan, MD, The Spine Group Beverly Hills: 75 percent will perform outpatient surgeries five years from now.
Brian R. Gantwerker, MD, FAANS, The Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: It is difficult to know with the out-of-network model changing quickly. I imagine most spine surgeons would perform about 20 to 30 percent of their surgeries, including non-instrumented healthy Medicare cases outpatient. The model is still so attractive because of efficiency and catering to the surgeon and their patient's needs in a close and attentive setting.
Charles S. Theofilos, MD, The Spine Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.: There is huge growth in the next five years in outpatient surgeries. This seems to be the trend with maybe too many surgeons trying to take on outpatient surgeries to accommodate their patients. But conservatively, many of the surgeons should be performing these as inpatient procedures.
Robert S. Bray, Jr., MD, DISC Sports & Spine Center: Outpatient spine surgery is a rapidly emerging field. A selection of higher acuity spine cases such as front/back fusions, tumors and complex cervical reconstructions are now routinely and safely performed in the outpatient setting. We have signed contracts with most major insurers and are beginning risk-sharing payer relationships.
Praveen Kadimcherla, MD, Atlantic Spine Center: I believe that most spine surgeons today are performing surgeries in a surgery center, especially surgeries such as microdiscectomies. I believe the trend is for surgeons to do more surgeries in the surgery center. I believe this will include more surgeons doing minimally invasive fusions in the surgery center setting. I believe this trend will lead to a large percentage of surgeons having ownership in a surgery center.
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