Our Story

In 2013, Dr. Zeev Kain—who was a Chair of Anesthesiology and Associate Dean of Clinical Operations at the University of California—implemented an innovative practice model called Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH). His goal was to optimize surgical patient care across the entire continuum, and his work across multiple lines has resulted in savings of millions of dollars to the system.

Since then, Dr. Kain has implemented systems of enhanced recovery and the perioperative surgical home in a number of hospital systems.

During this time, he discovered the greatest barrier to achieving a patient-centric system of care is the fact that no one is really working together. Over 60 providers could be working on one patient across the episode of care, and yet no one is communicating.

Dr. Kain started a national initiative to bring all the players into one place, through a series of conferences. These conferences have been highly successful and led to the current overall structure of the ACPM.

Defining an Innovative, Clinical Strategy for Value-Based Care

While the current system is fragmented, driven by volume and individual physician preference, we need clinical models that aim to reduce this variability. We can achieve this is by treating the entire perioperative episode as one continuum of care, rather than as a silo-based system where stakeholders operate in their own microcosms, performing discrete sets of patient care activities.

But how do we navigate this change?

It’s time for all healthcare stakeholders to sit at the table together.

In 2016, the American College of Perioperative Medicine was formed. Our conferences join hundreds of like-minded healthcare participants in one room. Together, we seek new solutions to old paradigms, seizing the opportunity to be proactive in creating the future of healthcare.

The paradigm within which we work is evolving, but when we find a way to work together, our purpose will always live on.