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Stop by the
National Anesthesia booth #805 in San Diego at the annual
AANA meeting!!!
Fun Facts:
Sharks are one of the oldest living creatures in the sea.
Mosquitoes are insects that have been around for 30 million
years.
Watermelon is actually a VEGETABLE!
In 1905, an 11-year-old boy named Frank Epperson invented
the first Popsicle.
The average American eats around 5 1/2 gallons of ice cream
a year, more than any other nationality.
The first "bathing suits" for women were introduced in the
early 1800's.
The Frisbee was originally designed as a tin pie plate in
the 1870's.
More Fun Facts:
Jellyfish are 95% water.
An albatross can sleep while it flies.
One toad can eat 10,000 insects in one summer.
Lemons have more sugar than strawberries.
Save yourself
time by keeping us updated with your credentials. Fax any
updated information to 248.646.0361 as soon as you receive
it or visit
www.nationalanesthesia.com
and create your online profile today! This will help in
keeping you credentialed in your current assignment or
preparing for a new one.
Quick Links
Join our mailing list!
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A message from the President
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Summer is in full
swing and I hope you're all enjoying the
warmer temperatures, time off and traveling.
For those of you who will be making the trek
to the annual AANA meeting in San Diego,
don't forget to stop by the National
Anesthesia booth! The shows are always a
highlight for our account managers because
they enjoy meeting you and seeing those of
you we've worked with in the past. We've
also got a great give- away that you'll have
to stop by and register for!
In this month's issue of National News we've
included the article "Robotic Surgery Offers
Precise Handling, Quicker Procedures" which
provides information about the new option
some patients are being presented with in
the operating room and how robots can
enhance surgery procedures. On July 1st
National Anesthesia had a company picnic
filled with games, food, and fun, you can
share in the experience in the article
"Summer Celebration."
Our company and team members have received
quite a few accolades over the years and
this time around I will be highlighted in an
upcoming issue of Corp! Magazine
which you can read about in "Stephen Read:
Entrepreneur of Distinction." Last but not
least we are featuring a three part series
from "The Changing Face of Surgery," which
outlines how surgery may be paid for in the
future and how technology will impact
surgery.
Before summer is over connect with National
Anesthesia! Let us know your availability
and where you'd like to work. We have
assignments throughout the country so,
whether you want to stay close to home or
try something new, we have an assignment
just right for you!
We would like
to thank everyone who has taken advantage of
our online registration! Don't forget this
is available to you 24/7 for updates and
additions as well. Visit
www.nationalanesthesia.com
today!
Stephen Read, President
National Anesthesia Services, Inc.
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Quote of the month
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The true measure
of a man is how he treats someone who can do
him absolutely no good.
----- Samuel Johnson |
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Robotic Surgery Offers Precise Handling,
Quicker Procedures
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A small but
growing number of patients are getting a new
option in the operating room -- robots that
are helping surgeons perform more complex
procedures.
When 54-year-old Bill Souter was diagnosed
with cancer last month and told his prostate
would need to be removed, he was offered the
chance to make medical history at the
Cleveland Clinic by becoming the ninth
person in the world to have his prostate
removed through a tiny incision in his belly
button.
"I feel like I'm pretty important to my
family and my friends," he said. " And I
don't want to lose that right now. So I feel
this is the way to go."
The new technology, called the daVinci Si HD
Surgical System, takes the notion of
minimally invasive surgery to an entirely
new level.
Because a person's naval is just skin and
abdominal lining, doctors don't have to cut
through layers of muscle.
"If we can avoid cutting through muscle, we
can minimize the pain of the patient," the
Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Jihad Kaouk said.
And the new technology is not just for
prostates. It can be used for appendixes,
hysterectomies, even to take out parts of
the liver and lymph nodes, all through the
belly button. And the robot can even seal
the organ in a plastic bag before it's
removed from the body.
"It's quite a medical feat, I would say,"
Souter said.
And another breakthrough in the past month
included the addition of a new surgical arm
with life- like finger controls so precise
that the robot can tie tiny knots in the
sutures.
"I think we're at the tip of the iceberg; I
think the technology we have now is
unbelievable," said Dr. Michael D.
Stifelman, director of robotic surgery at
NYC Langone Medical Center.
That technology also includes robot eyes --
miniature cameras that now come in high
definition, magnified 10 times so doctors
can see images inside the body so intensely
it's like seeing at 20 feet what others can
see only at 10 feet.
At NYU, Stifelman can now see and remove a
tiny kidney tumor the size of a pencil
eraser while leaving most of the kidney
intact.
"The possibilities are endless," he said.
"It's just what we can create to make this
better."
The new technology enables doctors to
perform more complex procedures while
minimizing blood loss and the time a patient
needs to stay in the hospital.
There are more than 1,000 daVinci Systems in
use at 930 hospitals worldwide and 825 in
the United States, according to the
manufacturer.
Among the other benefits is that it reduces
surgery time. A routine hysterectomy, for
instance, takes 92.4 minutes
laparoscopically; it takes 78.7 minutes with
the daVinci, according to the manufacturer.
New ways of using the daVinci surgical
system also include urinary reconstructive
surgeries and thoracic surgeries.
Stifelman demonstrated for "Good Morning
America" how precise the device can be. It
can thread a needle, tie a knot and even
peel a grape.
The first procedure was done in 2005.
Stifelman did one of the first comparative
studies of the daVinci in partial
nephrectomies and found patients who had the
robotic surgery did better and had a quicker
recover time than those who had
open-incision operations, or laparoscopic
techniques.
Stifelman said that even if the operator's
hands shake, the instrument definitely
won't. The breakthrough is that it
eliminates tremors of the hands, he said.
---Imaeyen Ibanga and Sarah Netter
http://abcnews.go.com
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Summer Celebration
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All work and no
play, makes National's team a dull group!
Fortunately, working hard allows our team to
play hard as well! National Anesthesia
kicked off their summer fun with their 7th
annual picnic on July 1st! The gang was in a
very festive mood as we were heading into a
long, holiday weekend and we started the
afternoon off with a delicious meal. In
keeping with tradition, Grill Master,
Stephen Read, served up hand- crafted
burgers, bratwurst and the rest of the team
brought in their own special side dishes.
It's amazing how a fancy serving bowl can
transform a store- bought item into a
seemingly homemade creation! After we fueled
up, it was time to burn off the calories!
Renee had a few fun games up her sleeve and
our competitive nature kicked in as we
battled each other for creative,
picnic-themed prizes. Lots of laughter
accompanied the hula-hooping, water-balloon
tossing, hole-in-one and ladder ball games!
It was fun to act like a bunch of kids and
always gets us fired up and ready to work
hard.
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Stephen Read: Entrepreneur of Distinction
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We are very proud
to announce that our president, Stephen
Read, has been chosen as one of Corp!
Magazine's Entrepreneurs of Distinction
for 2009. The publication has featured
entrepreneurs of distinction for the past
several years and the selection process was
exceptionally challenging for 2009 due to
the overwhelming response they had. In the
end Mr. Read, along with 27 others, stood
out among many and will be honored in the
magazine and at their annual breakfast.
We have a great deal to be proud of here at
National Anesthesia and that is, in no small
part, due to what we have learned from our
President. He envisioned a company driven by
customer service and integrity and that
would employ people who were as passionate
about their jobs as he is. Twenty years
later his company is thriving and, by
following Mr. Read's example, the success of
National Anesthesia Services will continue
for years to come.
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The Changing Face of Surgery Part 1
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How might
anesthesia be delivered in 2020?
From a cockpit, where a single anesthesia
provider seated before a bank of screens and
monitors will oversee several surgical
patients at once, communicating with the OR
team, monitoring patients' physiologic data
and, with the aid of decision-support
software, adjusting their infusion rates.
Remote-controlled care. That's how John P.
Abenstein, MD, an associate professor of
anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic in
Rochester, Minn., sees the future of
surgery.
This cockpit model is already working in
intensive care and post-cardiac units across
the country, says Dr. Abenstein. That such a
model of delivery would eliminate the
requirement for skilled personnel is not
lost on him.
"How do you respond to an increased demand
and a decreased supply of anesthesia
providers?" he asks. "Not by having 1 highly
skilled [anesthesia provider] per patient.
One anesthesia provider per 1 patient is the
road to oblivion. Who do we really need in
the OR?"
Industries that have succeeded have used
technology to improve efficiency, says Dr.
Abenstein. "We're 10 to 20 years behind the
technological advances that have gone
through other industries."
Telemonitoring and decision-support systems
can also monitor and analyze trends and
sound alarms before problems reach a
critical level. Often the decision-support
system "sees" a problem before the
anesthesia provider does.
"None of this is ground-breaking
technology," says Dr. Abenstein. In fact,
the Mayo Clinic tested a closed-loop
anesthesia control system in the 1950s. What
has improved, he says, is the technology's
ability to process, transmit and present the
information generated.
As more surgery centers become affiliated
with regional health networks,
telemonitoring may become more affordable
for surgery centers because they would be
able to piggyback on the more powerful
networks of large medical centers, says Dr.
Abenstein.
How might surgery be paid for in 2020?
The private insurance market's
pay-for-performance incentives will drive
payment policy for ASCs, predicts Marian
Lowe, a partner and senior vice president of
federal health policy for Strategic Health
Care, based in Washington, D.C. In addition,
the gap between Medicare reimbursement rates
for ASCs and hospital outpatient departments
will probably narrow, says Ms Lowe.
Currently the average ASC payment is 59% of
what an HOPD earns.
What if the surgical facility and the
surgeon no longer received separate fees? A
global fee could be on its way, in which
reimbursement of the physician and the
facility would be bundled into 1 payment,
says Ms. Lowe. CMS has already started pilot
programs that bundle fees for inpatient
procedures. If the concept were expanded to
outpatient procedures, the surgical facility
could make out well, depending on its
relationship with the physicians. "That will
be a difficult contract-negotiating
challenge," says Ms. Lowe.
Another issue is the accountable care
organization model, which is designed to
hold providers responsible for the overall
cost of patient care and encourage
collaboration between physicians, hospitals
and other providers in a community. The
collaborative organization would be rewarded
or penalized based on whether its members
reduce costs, improve quality or reduce the
rate of growth in spending. Any savings
would be shared between Medicare and the
organization.
This concept likely favors large medical
institutions and health networks, says Ms.
Lowe. If the concept catches on, a
non-affiliated surgery center could face
challenges when the larger institution
believes it can save money within its system
and exclude local ASCs. However, if the
institution sees a surgery center as a
partner, where procedures can be done for
less than in the hospital and the savings
could be shared, the larger institution may
actually send procedures to the surgery
center, says Ms. Lowe.
----Kent
Steinriede
http://www.outpatientsurgery.net
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General Disclaimer:
The materials have been compiled by National
Anesthesia Services. Inc. from internal and
external sources. However, while we have
attempted to provide accurate information in
this publication, no representation is made
or warranty given as to the completeness or
accuracy of the Materials. In particular,
you should be aware that the Materials may
be incomplete, may contain errors, or may
have become out of date. You should
therefore verify information obtained from
this publication before you take any action
upon it.
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