Outpatient/Short-Stay Vascular Surgery: A Model for the PSH

What is the Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH), and are both anesthesiologists and surgeons ready to accept this? The PSH is a concept of coordinated perioperative patient care that has been proposed by physician anesthesiologists. In a recent paper from Vetter et al. from the University of Alabama-Birmingham, the benefits and aspects of the surgical home were well described.¹  It has been proposed by ASA and others as “an innovative, patient-centered, surgical continuity of care model that incorporates shared decision making.”¹  The need for this is multifaceted. One of the goals of the Affordable Care Act is to reduce costs and improve health care outcomes by shifting the system toward quality over quantity through increased competition, regulation and incentives to streamline the delivery of health care. These goals will be accomplished by moving from a fee-for-service payment plan to “value-based purchasing.” That “value” will be determined by various outcomes...