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Highland Hospital
From calendar year 2001 to 2004 Strong Health Highland Hospital has experienced
remarkable growth and by the same token, the demands on the Department of
Anesthesiology. The number of operating rooms has gone from 8 to 11, and by
September 2005 will stand at 12, a 50% increase in capacity during four years.
With this expansion in capacity have come increased volume of approximately 20%
in 2002 compared to 2001 and a further increase of approximately 4% in 2003
compared to 2002. The past year with retirements of surgeons and transitional
periods in adding back volume, there was a decrease in surgical volume of 1%.
We anticipate that volume and acuity for 2005-2006 will increase as the
department delivers care to patients in 3 new centers for Strong Health.
Those 3 centers are the
Evarts Joint Center
, where the vast majority of adult orthopedic reconstructive surgery for
Strong Health is performed, the Bariatric Center, which has seen remarkable
growth in just the past 2 years from 200 to 700 cases annually, and the
Geriatric Fracture Center.
 All of these changes have and will continue to result in not only better utilization of the OR's in prime time but also increased numbers of cases that go into extended-prime and evening hours. In addition our obstetrical caseload has increased 50% comparing 2002 to 2001, with an approximately 55% epidural rate and 25% C-Section rate. These increases in workload have been met by recruiting additional anesthesiologists to the University of Rochester Anesthesiology Group and the short-term use of a contract with an anesthesiology group, many of whom were trained at Strong. The goals for 2005-2006 would include the successful recruitment of anesthesiologists to the University of Rochester Anesthesiology Group with a mix of clinical work at Highland and/or at Strong, the continued upgrading of equipment, and the addition of an additional anesthesia technician to facilitate efficient patient care. We also plan to expand our abilities in acute intra-operative and post-operative pain management as our patient population will include many more patients who would benefit from interventions that an acute pain service would offer.
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