Thirty years of the Anesthesiology Department at Clínica Reina Sofía

Abstract

This article describes the establishment of the first anesthesiology department of a hospital of a health maintenance organization (HMO) in Colombia. It was founded by a heterogeneous group of anesthesiologists, several of them with formal subspecialty training abroad, who designed its administrative, academic and clinical strategies. This led to innovative approaches of perioperative medicine including preanesthetic assessment, deep venous thrombosis prophylaxis, optimization of preoperative testing, massive transfusion protocols, patient blood management (PBM) protocols, enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS), intensive care unit bypass for neurosurgical procedures, and perioperative outcome analysis, all which were novel in the country. Moreover, for over three decades it hosted an annual anesthesia course to address original topics, hosting global opinion leaders in anesthesia and reinvesting the profits in continuous medical education, more than 20 anesthesia journal subscriptions and simulation equipment as well as physiological data acquisition software and equipment. Lastly, it established the first four-year residency program in Colombia, focusing on perioperative medicine based on interventions for improving patient outcomes.