Ambulatory Anesthesia Rotation

Rotations in ambulatory anesthesia are based in the UVA Outpatient Surgery Center, a modern, freestanding facility located in the University of Virginia Health System two blocks from University Hospital. This multispecialty ambulatory surgical is available for use by any surgical specialty and operates under the medical direction of Dr. Terrance Yemen , Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Anesthesiology.  The Outpatient Surgery Center has six operating rooms, a two-phase post anesthesia care unit and, as a unit of a University Medical Center, cares for a broad range of patients. Approximately half of these represent general medical-surgical practice from the local area and half come from the referrals to physicians of the University of Virginia Health System. The region covered is a large geographic area including central and western Virginia and West Virginia.

Residents in anesthesiology have rotations in ambulatory anesthesia at several points during their training. The rotations are structured to provide each resident with opportunities to develop practice patterns which they will carry beyond residency. By using the model of a freestanding ambulatory surgical center we have the opportunity to expose residents to the issues and opportunities of a community based anesthesia practice. Issues relating to 'production pressures', practice management and economics encountered in the practice of anesthesia are confronted. The rotations are conducted to permit the resident to deal with and understand these issues rather than to isolate him or her from them. During ambulatory rotations residents will care for patients in Orthopedics, Otorhinolaryngology, Gynecology, Urology, General Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Ophthalmology. Particular emphasis is given to the care of pediatric patients (approximately one half of the pediatric surgical patients cared for in the Medical Center are treated at the Outpatient Surgery Center) and to the use of regional anesthesia for surgery and for postoperative pain management.

Dr. William Ross  directed the program between 1985-2002. He is the author of the chapter, Monitoring the Anesthesia Machine, in the last two editions of Lake's textbook, Clinical Monitoring (Saunders, 1995). Drs. Ross and Jim Cox (a resident completing training in July, 1995) collaborated on a chapter entitled, Preoperative Evaluation of the Adult Outpatient, in Schirmer's textbook, Ambulatory Surgery published in 1998 (Saunders). Dr. Ross has contributed a chapter, Medical Direction of the Ambulatory Surgical Center , to the same text. His interests include surgical facility management, metabolism of volatile anesthetics, anesthesia equipment and monitoring. Dr. Ross also holds an M.B.A. degree.

Members of the clinical faculty participating in the ambulatory anesthesia program are: