N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 5 1
Robert S. Bray, MD, and Karen Reiter, RN, CNOR, RNFA, CASC | Marina del Rey, Calif.
9 Tips for Adding
Outpatient Spine
Advice from the founder and the
administrator of one of the country's
first spine surgery centers.
S
pine surgery's soaring demand
and seismic shift to the outpa-
tient setting have combined to
create an amazing growth oppor-
tunity for surgeons and
ambulatory facilities alike. What's driv-
ing the demand for spine services? An
aging, overweight and sedentary popula-
tion suffering from back and neck pain,
which causes more disability worldwide
than any other disease or disorder.
A combination of factors has acceler-
ated spine's recent conversion to outpatient sur-
gery. Among them are advances in minimally
invasive techniques that require much less mus-
cle dissection or retraction, studies touting the
safety and efficacy of outpatient spine surgery,
high satisfaction rates among patients and, of
course, lower costs that will be better suited for
soon-to-arrive bundled payment models for
spine, which will reward providers that deliver
To manage pain, we use
a multimodal protocol,
but we administer a
little less medication a
little more frequently.