Bundled Payments and Hidden Costs.

In a fee-for-service environment, anesthesiologists are paid for the volume of services billed, with little relation to the cost of delivering the services. In bundled payments, anesthesiologists are paid a set fee for an episode of care inclusive of all the anesthesia, pain medicine, and related services for the surgical episode and a period of time after the initial procedure to cover complications and redo procedures. When calculating a bundled payment, all the services typically used by a patient must be counted when calculating both the costs and expected payment.

Moderate sedation for chest physicians.

Specialists in pulmonary and critical care medicine frequently perform invasive procedures that may require sedation or anesthesia for patient comfort. The number and complexities of interventional pulmonary procedures that can be performed in the bronchoscopy suite or critical care unit continues to expand. Procedures that formerly were done only in the operating room on inpatients are now done routinely in the office, ambulatory surgery center, or hospital outpatient department.

Effects of droperidol dosage on postoperative emetic symptoms following pediatric strabismus surgery.

Study Objective: To compare the frequency of postoperative emetic symptoms and side effects in pediatric strabismus surgery using four doses of droperidol.

Design: Randomized, blinded study.

Setting: University eye institute.