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O U T P A T I E N T
E V O L U T I O N
HOME SWEET HOME Sending healthy surgical patients home
prevents them from spending time in the hospital, which should
be reserved for sick kids who truly need round-the-clock care.
Outpatient
Adenotonsillectomy
Is Possible
It's time to reconsider guidelines calling for
automatic overnight stays.
Jacqueline E. Jones, MD | New York, N.Y.
M
ost of my pediatric adenotonsillectomy patients are
complication-free following surgery and head home
without issue. So can a procedure performed
approximately 250,000 times each year in the
United States be done safely in the outpatient setting? Yes, I've proven that. But it has to be done in the right types of
facilities on the right types of patients, who are cared for by properly
trained perioperative teams. The decision to discharge patients is
based on a host of clinical and environmental factors unique to individual patients, but sending patients home on the day of surgery is
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | J A N U A R Y 2014
