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THINKING OF BUYING ...
Louise DeChesser, RN, CNOR, MS
Patient Warming Devices
Don't underestimate the value of comfortable patients.
Maintaining perioperative normothermia is the main goal of patient warming. Hypothermia has real consequences for surgical outcomes. But don't discount the real selling point of warming: happy patients. Even if they're wrong about everything else, patients are always right about the temperature. It is cold in here!
Many methods
Between convective (forced-air) warmers, table pads, blanket cabinets, heated fluids and other methods, you've got a lot of options to assist you in keeping your patients between 36°C and 38°C. To decide which are most suited for your patients and facility, ask yourself:
• What procedures are we doing? Although pre- and post-op patients can be completely covered, warming in the OR must be balanced against the need for surgical access. Some cases require exposure or positioning that may make particular warming methods cumbersome or intrusive.
• How effective is it? You don't have to wait for the next published study. During a product trial, demonstrate a method's results on your patient throughput. Monitor and record patients' temperatures in preop, the OR and PACU. As an added bonus, this could be the basis for a good QI study.
• What's the cost? Compare the costs of all the components or factors in warming processes, whether they're units and disposables or time and reprocessing, as well as how long the end result keeps a patient warm. This may demand asking how much patient satisfaction is worth to you and your surgeons. We warm nearly every patient, from pre-op to discharge, with forced-air warmers. (Our pain management patients get warmed blankets because their cases are so short and they're not
