Preoperative Evaluation of the Adult Outpatient

In the outpatient setting the preoperative anesthesia assessment – which exists in a variety of forms is a key tool for both optimizing medical and administrative outcomes. Proactive identification and management of medical problems avoids last minute surprises that at best interrupt ambulatory surgery center patient flow and at worst contribute to adverse medical outcomes. This lecture will review: 1) the basic requirements for preoperative evaluation as determined by payers and regulators 2) models of preoperative evaluation and their merits and 3) preanesthetic evaluation of selected co-morbidities which are particularly relevant to the outpatient setting such as obesity, sleep apnea, cardiac disease, and insulin requiring diabetes.