Anesthesiology Perioperative Services

The Vanderbilt Department of Anesthesiology offers two important inpatient services: the Acute Pain Service (APS) and the Perioperative Consult Service (PCS), led by doctors Edward Yaghmour and Matthew McEvoy. They take care of patients at Vanderbilt University Hospital, helping them before, during and after surgery. This way, patients receive special and personalized care throughout their entire surgery experience. They use advanced techniques to manage pain and have significantly reduced the use of strong pain medications in the hospital and after discharge.

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is a research-based method to help patients recover faster after surgery. Our PCS and APS teams are leaders in using ERAS. There are 24 anesthesiologists and 10 advanced practice providers, fellows and trainees on these teams. Each year, they perform over 7,000 regional anesthesia procedures to help with pain, not including procedures outside the hospital. They work to make sure patients recover well and spend less time in the hospital. In addition to their medical work, the team members also give talks at important meetings about managing pain without using strong drugs.

The Vanderbilt Preoperative Evaluation & Enhancement Center (VPEC) evaluates patients before their surgeries at Vanderbilt University Hospital and satellite surgery centers. The VPEC team – including doctors, nurse practitioners and nurses – does thorough evaluations and works with surgeons and other doctors to decide what tests are needed before safely undergoing surgery. They offer in-person and phone call visits. The center has grown a lot recently, with more than 26,000 visits a year.

The High-Risk Surgical Encounter Service (Hi-RiSE) from the Department of Anesthesiology began in July 2019. This team focuses on giving special care to patients who might have higher risk during surgery. They help patients prepare for surgery and address medical problems that improve recovery, reduce length of stay and lower costs. Common problems that are managed in this clinic include anemia, malnutrition, smoking cessation, diabetes, frailty and cardiopulmonary conditions.

Our Vanderbilt anesthesiologists take on more and more roles outside of the operating rooms to give patients full medical care in everything related to surgery. By using dedicated inpatient teams, advances in technology and data from digital health records, they can continue to improve the care they provide and increase the quality of patient recovery.