Office Anesthesia Study
As part of its Outcomes Assessment Project, the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) has established a national data repository to track national trends, risk adjusted outcomes of care, and associations between these outcomes and alternative processes of care. This database will allow AAOMS members to collect case mix, content of care, and outcomes data concerning their individual practices and to compare their performance to that of their peers.
The Office Anesthesia Study is one module of this national data repository. This study was initiated with alpha and beta testing in 2000 and completed over a twelve month period. Results from the study were published in the September 2003 issue of the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The article, Office-Based Ambulatory Anesthesia: Outcomes of Clinical Practice of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons is a detailed analysis and overview of the study data. Over 34,000 patients from 79 oral and maxillofacial surgeons were included in the analysis making it the largest prospective study of the administration of local anesthesia, conscious sedation, and deep sedation/general anesthesia in an ambulatory care setting. Provision of anesthesia by oral and maxillofacial surgeons and their administration teams was found to be safe and associated with a high degree of patient satisfaction.
Although the initial office-based anesthesia study was a great success, it is imperative that we continue to collect data on this important aspect of oral and maxillofacial surgery practice. You can now register to participate in this important study and assist your specialty in efforts to track national trends.
Members who wish to participate in the AAOMS Office Anesthesia Study will submit demographic, clinical, follow-up, and patient satisfaction data for all patients for whom they performed procedures involving anesthesia. All data collected for this study is confidential. To ensure patient and surgeon anonymity, data entered in the national data repository will not contain patient or surgeons' names or social security numbers. Rather, patient and surgeon data will be tracked using unique identification numbers.
As a participant in the study you will be able to maintain an on-line record of every case you submit to the program and gain immediate access to real-time comparison reports. These data can provide support for internal quality improvement initiatives, fulfilling accreditation standards for benchmarking studies, and marketing to third party payers.
A web-based program created by Outcome Sciences, Inc. for AAOMS will make data entry easy through a password-protected website that may be accessed from any computer with Internet access. For additional convenience, it will be possible to download data forms to a Palm Pilot or other handheld device. Data entry should take just 3-5 minutes per patient. Data entry training will be available for you and your staff.
If you wish to participate in the office-based anesthesia study you can initiate the registration process by filling out the AAOMS participation agreement form. Please fax the form to Martin Gonzalez, AAOMS Research Associate (847-678-6200). Past participants in the anesthesia study need only to call Outcomes Sciences Inc (888/526-6700) to reactivate their data collection accounts. If you have any questions regarding the Outcomes Assessment Project, please contact Martin Gonzalez at 800-822-6637.