Surgery/Specialties For the 10th straight year, Vanderbilt Health surgeons and staff spent a day providing free surgical care to qualifying uninsured and underinsured Middle Tennesseans. Vanderbilt Health’s Orthopaedics Outreach Day, which has occurred every year since 2017, finds its surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and medical students volunteering to provide free surgical care.…
A new article in press in The Journal of Foot & Ankle Surgery examines the “changing dynamics of ankle fracture care across emergency, inpatient, and ambulatory settings.” Researchers from Medical College of Georgia at Augusta (Ga.) University, Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at…
A new study published ahead of print in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons forecasts U.S. total knee arthroplasty (TKA) volumes to 2040, stating that “the shift to ambulatory surgery centers has just begun. Noting that policy changes, including removal from CMS’ Inpatient-Only (IPO) list, along with…
A new single-center, double-blind, prospective, superiority randomized controlled trial published in Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine compares continuous femoral nerve blocks (CFNB) and continuous adductor canal blocks (CACB) for outpatient anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery. The researchers, noting that the “comparative opioid-sparing and functional outcomes” of the two approaches are…
University College London Hospitals (UCLH) has announced “the first use of artificial intelligence [AI] to support a neurosurgeon in real time during live surgery.” The procedure “protected the sight of a man having a brain tumor removed,” stated the institution. The operation was performed at the UCLH’s National Hospital for…
The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has submitted formal comments to CMS on the 2027 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System proposed rule. The ACC states that its letter includes: Support for increased reimbursement for cardiac PET/CT services Support for maintaining higher reimbursement…
Integrated Surgical Center of Arizona (ISCA) has joined the network of ASC developer and operator Regent Surgical. Located in Avondale, Ariz., ISCA is a multispecialty ASC led by three Arizona physician organizations: IMS Care, described as Arizona’s “largest independent multispecialty physician group”; AZ Heart Arrhythmia Associates; and Valley GI Consultants.…
To open up hospital capacity and lower costs, Banner Health is expanding use of its co-owned Phoenix-area ASCs to host lower-acuity electrophysiology (EP) and interventional procedures, according to a new article in Cardiovascular Business. The publication’s interview with Wilber Su, MD, director of cardiac EP at Banner Health and professor…
Axios has published a report that examines how “an overhaul of how Medicare pays hospitals for joint replacements could pare hundreds of millions of dollars in program spending while getting facilities to pay closer attention to the cost and quality of care.” The report was prompted by CMS’ expansion of…
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) has published results of its AAOS Member Insights Panel, a national research panel of 524 orthopedic surgeons, on numerous issues that relate to their practice. AAOS states that the panel “captures surgeons’ views and experiences with innovation, technology, and the products and services…
