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Would You Operate On This Patient? - October 2015 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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technology that enables outpatient surgery. That requires excellent sur- gical technique and excellent perioperative management — picking patients who are healthy enough for the procedure, treating their pain effectively and getting them in the mindset of going home on the day of the surgery. Dr. Kusuma wants healthcare resources invested in low-volume surgeons who get poor outcomes, the docs who would benefit the most from the enhanced accuracy offered by robotics. He says top surgeons who already achieve excellent outcomes are frustrated that health systems won't pay them for performing better opera- tions, deciding instead to invest in robotics. "Let's pay the great sur- geons more money for doing a better job," says Dr. Kusuma. He'd be happy to pay out of pocket to have a good surgeon use a robot to achieve an optimal outcome. "But to ask a third-party payer or Medicare to pay for me to have a robotic operation is ludicrous when we have lots of public health problems that need resources ded- icated to them," he says. Replacing reps Gary Botimer, MD, fully admits vendors' reps bring great value to joint replacement service lines by making sure needed equipment is pres- ent, the supply inventory is complete and the surgical team knows how to use proprietary sets of instruments during procedures. "But once you become an experienced surgeon, you don't need a rep to tell you how to perform the procedure," says the chair of ortho- pedic surgery at Loma Linda (Calif.) University Medical Center, which recently trained some of its ortho techs to replace vendors during knee replacement procedures. "In fact, you probably shouldn't be doing it if you need a rep in the OR. Vendors are mostly involved in making sure staff are capable, and that's all very trainable." 1 6 8 O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5

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