About Anesthesia Operations Research

The existing literature in anesthesia operations research can be difficult to understand for the anesthesiologist in private practice for several reasons. Probably most important, the vocabulary and definitions used are both familiar and different at the same time. Many ideas and terms used in anesthesia operations research have very precise, and possible different, meanings than those used in daily anesthesia practice management. For example, the term “efficiency” in daily anesthesia group operations has a very different definition in operations research. In order to understand many of the concepts, a familiarity with statistics and basic math is needed.

Why bother with understanding something that seems akin to a foreign language that you have been doing successfully for years? In the period of multiple changes and challenges to come the language and concepts of anesthesia operations management research will be increasingly used by administrators, consultants, and regulators to justify their actions. You will need to have an understanding of the concepts and knowledge of what the literature is really saying to be able to respond to ideas, action plans, and directives that maybe developed in an office far from the realities of your practice.

Anesthesia operations management is ultimately about making decisions.