MAC Creates Value for Healthcare Partners
MAC recognizes the operational hurdles that hospitals and surgery centers face. We leverage the collective expertise of our skilled clinicians and experienced clinical leaders to drive innovative, efficient solutions that help our healthcare partners maintain care quality while keeping costs low for patients.
As a physician-led group, we align our interests with our healthcare partners and physicians as we work together to achieve our shared goal of delivering high-quality, accessible care.
Because of this alignment, MAC excels at creating long-term strategic relationships that result in elevated care quality and value for hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and physician offices.
Fewer Requirements for Hospital Resources
- Enables hospitals to focus on their core competencies
- Relieves administration from the burden of recruitment, enrollment, billing and collections
- MAC oversees quality management and human resource management
- Hospitals no longer absorb the cost of the above functions
- More efficient staffing system to staff on demand and utilize specialists as needed
Builds More Efficient and Cost-Effective Structure
- Partnership that improves physician communication and accountability
- Process model that directly impacts perioperative care
- Logistical expertise in anesthesia equipment and supply procurement
- Reduced malpractice insurance rates
- Resources for contingency planning
- Payor contracting expertise
- Access to more robust, effective and sophisticated IT solutions
Healthcare Reform and Compliance
- Specialization expertise for credentialing, licenses, insurance and certifications
- Expertise in data tracking and reporting
- Incorporation of evidence-based medicine and best practices for regulatory compliance
Leadership and Oversight
- Strong management team that effectively partners with the hospital
- Provision of ongoing training and continuing education to physicians
- Provision of leadership, succession planning and payor contract negotiations
MAC’s Leadership in Perioperative Services Helps Address the Trends in Healthcare
Our website is intended to provide you with general information about MAC. Listed below are answers to a few topics, and we welcome your inquiry to address your specific needs.
Why should I consider changing my anesthesia provider?
Many changes are occurring in the healthcare environment, which will put pressure on your reimbursement levels and mandate a higher level of data reporting to your patients, insurance companies and regulators. Efficiency and cost control will be even more important as we enter into this arena of health reform. Does your group have the infrastructure and leadership to meet your needs? Can they negotiate competitive rates from payors, and are you providing a large and ever-increasing stipend? If your existing group is small with a single-site model, then you and they will be hard pressed to make the timely and necessary changes needed to remain competitive.
What is the history of Medical Anesthesia Consultants (MAC)?
MAC was formed over 25 years ago by a merger of two (2) groups in Northern California. We have grown to more than 150 physicians providing complete perioperative services to more than 40 sites. MAC services large trauma and tertiary facilities as well as smaller community hospitals. Our facilities are both non-profit and for-profit, stand-alone or part of large national corporations. All of our physicians are board certified or will become certified within three (3) years of employment. Some are double boarded and many are fellowship trained in specialties such as cardiac anesthesiology, pediatrics and pain medicine.
What differentiates MAC from other groups?
MAC is one of the largest anesthesia groups in California. We are a fully integrated medical group, having structured our management, compensation and reporting systems to successfully maintain and grow our practice. As a team of highly skilled anesthesiologists, we have a strong reputation for fairness. Because of this reputation, MAC is able to recruit from top anesthesia residency and fellowship training programs including Stanford, UCSF and Harvard. MAC’s priority is establishing long-term partnerships predicated upon clinical improvements, OR efficiencies, leadership and strong relationships with facilities and communities.
Do you have examples of your quality/process improvement initiatives?
MAC has standardized all phases of the delivery of anesthesia care and has participated in multiple successful JCAHO surveys.Here are some examples of our activities:
- Continuous nerve block program for acute postoperative analgesia
- Perioperative Cardiac Risk Reduction protocol using beta-blockers and clonidine
- Patient-controlled labor epidural analgesia program
- Transfusion committee participation to reduce the use of blood products
- Continuous evaluation of costs
- Protocol for the morbidly obese and sleep apnea patients
- SCIP compliance (antibiotics, beta-blockers and temperature management)
- Moderate sedation policy for non-anesthesia providers
- Pre-Op evaluations
MAC is jointly participating in a “Hip Fracture Team” that has reduced total complications by 38 percent, LOS by 1.2 days and readmissions by 14 percent. Another initiative is blood management, which has reduced transfused blood products by 20 percent. Other didactic programs organized by our members include lectures on ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve blocks in the pre-operative holding area, pediatric advanced life support (PALS) training, airway management techniques and transcutaneous pacing during a code blue. Through our professional associations, we report a significant amount of data into their respective data banks to measure our results against other peer groups.
Does MAC have a compliance program?
A key measure of a group’s strength is our ability to interact with physician teammates proactively when behavioral, clinical or other interactions are deemed inappropriate, disruptive or otherwise unprofessional. MAC’s value, aside from our flexibility, is that we have the management structure to deal with member behavior issues decisively and proactively. We have developed policies and procedures to deal with disruptive physician behavior, policies which are incorporated in our physician employment agreement.
MAC thinks forward in terms of patient safety and has a mandatory drug testing program that is far more robust than similar programs in other groups. Most groups choose to do “suspicious testing” using collected urine samples. MAC uses serum testing, and each physician is tested at least once annually. All of our physicians are required to participate in annual compliance training. New MAC physicians receive compliance orientation that includes a review of policies and procedures and detailed education on billing and coding with a follow-up exam.
Contact us to learn how MAC can help you maintain superior healthcare and improve financial performance.