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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT 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
SAFETY
The more extensive pre-op evaluation helps recovery room staff
know which patients are more likely to face potential issues once
they're discharged home.
Consider hospitalizing a patient if the caregiver burden interview
reveals the family was already under a great deal of care-related
stress before the operation, or if the patient is exceptionally frail
or cognitively impaired. In fact, these patients might not be suit-
able for surgery in the outpatient setting. OSM
Dr. Katlic (
mk atlic@lifeb ridg ehea lth.org
) is the chief of the department of
surgery and surgeon-in-chief at Sinai Hospital and the director of the Sinai
Center for Geriatric Surgery in Baltimore, Md.
W
hen I came to Sinai
Hospital in Baltimore,
Md., I asked the
administration to create a center for
geriatric surgery. The idea was to
take better care of elderly patients,
teach other facilities about what
we're doing and how we can all do
better. It's both a clinical/ patient care mission and an academic mission.) The Sinai
Center for Geriatric Surgery has been open for about a year. It's virtual: The elderly
travel along the same surgical circuit that all patients do, but our perioperative
staff focuses on their unique clinical needs and sensitivities. Among the many suc-
cessful case outcomes I've achieved: lung surgeries performed on a 104-year-old
woman who was kept overnight and on a 100-year-old man who was discharged
the day of surgery and several patients who were turned down for surgery by
other centers.
— Mark Katlic, MD, MMM, FACS
FACILITY FOCUS
The Sinai Center for Geriatric Surgery
TARGETED CARE Joann Coleman, RN, clinical
coordinator at the Sinai Center for Geriatric Surgery,
performs pre-operative testing on an elderly patient.
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