Does the title of this article seem boring – or “timeless,” for readers in a more generous mood? If the answer to either question is yes, that is not altogether a bad thing. The United States Supreme Court decision upholding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act alleviated much uncertainty about healthcare reform and all of its ramifications, at least until after the November elections. Trends in the delivery of healthcare that began some time ago will continue. “The coming years will bring continued dealmaking and greater scrutiny of hospital and physician performance on quality and cost control,” as speakers said at the June 2012 Healthcare Financial Management Association Annual National Institute. Quality, safety and practice management are as important as ever to the future of anesthesia practice. Richard P. Dutton, MD, MBA, Executive Director of the Anesthesia Quality Institute, bridges the small valley between traditional mortality and morbidity (M&M) conferences...

  The Anesthesia Quality Institute was founded to create and maintain the National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry (NACOR). This project is now two and a half years old and more than 135 practices, including nine ABC clients, have contributed more than 5 million records to this “every case, every day” registry. Participants have online access to the NACOR Reporting Server, where they can see continually updated summaries of their practice performance and aggregated national benchmarks. This information, and the ability to slice and dice it to examine subsets of interest, is an important business and quality management tool. After all, what can’t be measured can’t be improved. Or can it? Although we pride ourselves on our data-driven, scientific, high-tech practice, anesthesiology remains as much art as science. As the popularity of morbidity and mortality conferences attests, there is a lot to be learned from the unfortunate experience of others. Schadenfreude aside,...