Operational considerations for delivery of anesthesia in the ambulatory gastrointestinal suite

As the need for Anesthesiology Services expands beyond the operating room to Gastroenterology venues, collaborative practice standards become increasingly necessary. Goal alignment is critical to assure patient safety, comfort, and optimized outcomes. Anesthesia standards of care and the normal cadence of running a gastrointestinal suite must achieve integration on both an operational and medical level. This becomes more difficult as procedural and patient complexity increase. Significant challenges discussed here include costs and format of preoperative assessment, mutually acceptable scheduling platforms, limitations of non-operating room venues, and management of costs and revenues.