Much of the Ambulatory Anesthesiology Division’s success can be attributed to the introduction of a new model of care, in which a dedicated perioperative team, comprised of anesthesiologists, surgeons, and highly trained nurses, works together to ensure a seamless patient experience. From the outset, Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) faculty and staff have treasured the spirit of comradery and teamwork fostered amongst this common goal. The Duke Ambulatory Anesthesiology Division consider themselves not only part of a department and division, but part of a broader health system ASC team.
As members of this team, the Ambulatory Anesthesiology Division has been instrumental in the application of regional anesthesia to help facilitate patient care and procedures once necessitating inpatient hospital admission to be performed in the ambulatory setting. Members of this division developed the B. Braun Continuous Peripheral Nerve Block Catheter System. With this technology, Duke’s original stand-alone ASC became the first center in the nation to send patients home with continuous peripheral nerve blocks to manage postoperative pain. Duke’s ambulatory division was amongst the first to institute paravertebral nerve blocks in the outpatient setting to enable complex breast surgeries, such as mastectomies to be performed as an ambulatory surgical procedure. Additionally, it was one of the first to perform ambulatory total joint arthroplasty procedures, and now, an entire team and center is dedicated to same day, outpatient total knee and hip arthroplasty procedures. With the implementation of specific regional anesthesia techniques, spine surgery is now being performed awake and/or with light sedation in the ambulatory environment. The Ambulatory Anesthesiology Division and the entire Duke ASC team, across multiple outpatient surgery centers, have repeatedly demonstrated that extensive procedures can be carried out successfully on an outpatient basis with carefully coordinated teamwork and attention to acute pain management.
Delivering compassionate, efficacious, and efficient patient-centered care is the mission of the Ambulatory Anesthesiology Division and the entire ASC team. As experts in ambulatory and regional anesthesia, the division’s practice is tailored to quickly return patients home to their families and a normal lifestyle, with excellent surgical outcomes and high patient satisfaction. The ambulatory division’s past, present and future are unified in their dedication to perioperative teamwork, openness to change and wholehearted commitment to improving patient care.