Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

2018 Salary Survey - Outpatient Surgery Magazine - January 2019

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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important to healthcare facilities, texting is one way we can better serve the needs of patients and families. "It was so nice to get your text," we'll often hear. And our repeat patients — those who've had transplants and need liver biopsies or those with facial hematomas receiving laser treatment — will often tell our nurses, "Just text me next time" to remind them of their appointment. 160 characters per text Even though we've incorporated texting into our pre-op communica- tions, we still do some things the traditional way. We don't let patients register and record their medical information online, and we've yet to integrate the texting system with our EHR. And we haven't done away with the pre-op phone call. One of our nurses calls every patient's par- ent about 3 days before surgery to review the child's medical history and to take a health history. We haven't eliminated the phone call in case the parent has a question for the nurse. During this initial call, the nurse asks Mom or Dad for a secure phone number on which they'd like to receive text alerts from us. Our automated system sends a confirmation text during the call to ensure receipt. Soon after we hang up, parents receive a standardized text that includes the date of surgery, our address and phone number, as well as links to our site about anesthesia and same-day surgery. We're limited to 160 characters per text, so we must be succinct. One day before surgery, we'll call and text parents again to give NPO instructions and to remind them of the arrival time. For pediatric patients, NPO times can vary. We created texts for clear liquids (water, Gatorade or plain, clear apple juice) up to 2 hours before sur- gery, breast milk up to 4 hours, formula up to 6 hours and thickened J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 2 3

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