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No More Empty Beds - Outpatient Surgery Magazine - February 2020

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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which isn't suitable for use during certain procedures. Different surgi- cal teams also use various techniques to place patients in the supine position. Plus, patients have individual positioning needs based on a variety of factors, including skin integrity and physical make-up. "We wanted to empower staff to work with their team in the OR to make positioning happen with best practices always in mind," says Ms. Rusch. Whenever a new position is rolled out, relevant information is post- ed on bulletin boards and shared at staff huddles. The info is also kept in resource binders in the ORs, as well as in a folder on the depart- ment's online server. Increased awareness Overall, says Ms. Rusch, "The changes that ended up coming out of our project had to do with best practices, [whether] we have the best devices for positioning our patients, and what else can we be doing and looking for. It was also about heightening awareness, in terms of assessing our patients a bit more frequently, checking for any kind of movement in patient positioning, and making sure we're using the devices that are going to help promote prevention of pressure or nerve injury development." Ms. Rusch suggests staying up to date on the latest best practices and techniques for patient positioning. "I reference AORN guidelines because they're based on a comprehensive literature review, but I also use search engines like PubMed, CINAHL Plus and Google Scholar to look for a good sampling of best practices, and what current research is recommending," she says. "It's essential to have those tools to help you. Any new information that comes out yearly is good to stay on top of." OSM F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 5 3

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