The Pre-Anesthesia Clinic (PAC) opened and started seeing patients on October 3rd, 2023.
The PAC is located at the East Madison Hospital in the new 3rd floor clinic space. This clinic will serve all patients 18 and older who are undergoing surgery at East Madison Hospital, Madison Surgery Center, and University Hospital.
After 4 years of committed effort from the Department of Anesthesiology and the multidisciplinary Preoperative Steering Committee, Dr. Kelly McQueen, Ralph M Waters Distinguished Chair of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine and Public Health and Dr. William Hartman, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine and Public Health, and Medical Director of the PAC at UW Health, are excited to offer standardized pre-anesthesia evaluation to UW Health surgical patients. The goals of the clinic include improving health system metrics, as well as improving individual patient outcomes and decreasing complications.
With support from the UW Health Perioperative Value Stream Project, a new risk stratification tool to triage patients was developed and integrated into important surgical workflows, enabling the anesthesia team to evaluate more patients. The new tool will assess risk through electronic chart review and a health questionnaire completed by the patient. Patients identified for further evaluation will be scheduled for either an in-person or telehealth visit prior to surgery to ensure they are prepared for surgery.
“The clinic will expand our reach and better evaluate and prepare patients for surgery. Ultimately, we hope the clinic will expand to include patient optimization for surgery, further preparing patients for surgery, improving outcomes, and resulting in additional patient and family satisfaction.” – Kelly McQueen, MD, MPH, FASA
McQueen explains “The clinic will expand our reach and better evaluate and prepare patients for surgery. Ultimately, we hope the clinic will expand to include patient optimization for surgery, further preparing patients for surgery, improving outcomes, and resulting in additional patient and family satisfaction.” She adds “Dr. Hartman who brings his expertise and experience in augmenting pre-anesthesia care systems will lead the PAC into the future.” Hartman and recruited faculty including, Drs. Christopher Darling, Brian Cacioppo, Mike Ford, Mike Hanneman, Diane Head, Richard Lennertz, Tim McCormick, Patrick Meyer, Jeff Olech, Paul Rabedeaux, Jennifer Rodgers, Mark Stram and Meghan Warren will be primarily staffing the clinic, with support from APP Anne Barnett, and the PAC Clinic RN’s including Ashley Bishop, Michelle Bishop, Melissa Deer, Jenna Shinstine, and Donna Quandt, as well as rotating anesthesia residents.
The PAC will offer new opportunities for education and training for anesthesia residents and medical students, providing important experience in perioperative medicine and caring for patient in the pre-, intra- and post-operative periods. Additionally, studying outcomes in surgical patient populations will be a focus, and data collection will start in the preoperative phase and will link to postoperative outcomes. Research on the health system impact is also a focus and commitment.