Office-based surgery coming sooner than you think

Editor’s Note: Welcome to “Eye Catching: Let's Chat,” a blog series featuring contributions from members of the ophthalmic community. These blogs are an opportunity for ophthalmic bloggers to engage with readers with about a topic that is top of mind, whether it is practice management, experiences with patients, the industry, medicine in general, or healthcare reform. The series continues with this blog by Mark Packer, MD, FACS, CPI. The views expressed in these blogs are those of their respective contributors and do not represent the views of Ophthalmology Times or UBM Advanstar.

 

At Kaiser Permanente Medical Centers in California, Washington, and Colorado, ophthalmologists are performing cataract surgery in minor procedure rooms, with only a registered nurse assisting-no nurse anesthetist, anesthesiologist, IV, or injections-and are operating on both eyes of each patient on the same day in most cases.

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Surgeons say that patients love the convenience, and Kaiser is reaping the benefit of significant cost savings.1 

(Photo courtesy of National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health)

At the 2014 meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, Kent Stiverson, MD, reported on the experience that he, David Litoff, MD, and others have had performing same-day bilateral cataract surgery in the minor procedure room of Kaiser Rock Creek in Lafayette, CO.

More than 20,000 cataract cases have been performed since 2006 in Kaiser minor procedure rooms in Colorado.  He states that 60% to 70% of these are performed in both eyes on the same day, using only topical anesthesia and oral sedation with sublingual Halcion.

“We have had no endophthalmitis,” he noted.

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