#328 Discharge Is Not The Finish Line

Welcome to the 2nd episode in our coverage of this year's APSF Stoelting Conference. Discharge feels like a win, but what if it’s only the handoff into the riskiest part of recovery? We challenge the OR to PACU to hospital discharge success mindset and zoom out to the full perioperative journey, where real anesthesia patient safety is measured by what patients can do once they’re back home
 living their lives.

We share powerful ideas from the 2026 APSF Stoelting Conference, including a vision for frictionless surgical care that reduces the burden on patients and clinicians through earlier history capture, smarter coordination, and better post-discharge pathways for known patients who need urgent help. Then we get concrete about outcomes: high-risk surgical patients are safer when they’re seen within 14 days after discharge, but limited clinic resources make that hard to deliver consistently. AI-powered risk stratification and predictive analytics can help identify who truly needs that early follow-up to reduce readmissions and mortality.

We also explore patient-defined success, where an uneventful anesthetic and smooth PACU can still end in confusion, missed medications, fear of mobility, or a preventable fall at home. The 4Ms framework (what matters, medication, mind, mobility) gives us a practical lens for age-friendly perioperative care. On the front end, we look at how AI can support preop clinic workflows, from triage to medication instructions, while naming the real concern of de-skilling and the need for clinician upskilling.

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For show notes & transcript, visit our episode page at apsf.org: https://www.apsf.org/podcast/328-discharge-is-not-the-finish-line-stoelting-conference-series-part-2/

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