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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 | A U G U S T 2 0 1 4
T U R N O V E R
At the 3-OR Kettering (Ohio) Memorial Hospital, 1 or 2 "float" staff are
responsible to help turn over rooms. They have many other responsibil-
ities as well, such as pulling supplies, gathering equipment and instru-
ments, covering for breaks and lunches, and helping to position
patients. However, room turnover takes precedence over all those other
duties. "We have prioritized that when a room is turning over, that is
where at least 1 float goes," says Nurse Manager Barb Dunkin, RN.
Shaving seconds Besides teamwork and having enough hands
and help, here are 4 strategies our panelists say work well for them:
• Plan ahead. Make sure you have everything for your next case. At
the Advanced Surgical Institute, they spend time the day before
arranging the schedule to keep heavy equipment on the same side as
much as possible, says Ms. Tonetta. "We'll do all right knee scopes,
then all left knee scopes," she says.
• Custom or procedure packs (supplies in pre-configured packs) can
reduce the amount of time spent unwrapping supplies.
• Tell physicians to mark the next patient before talking to the family of
the just-finished case. "This way, you can transport the patient to the OR,
position and anesthetize him. The physician can come in to verify the posi-
tion and then can go scrub while the nurse is prepping the surgical site,"
says Melissa Becker, RN, BSN, CNOR, the OR clinical coordinator at the
Buffalo Surgery Center in Amherst, N.Y.
• Excuse the circulator from turnover duties, says Traci Oswald,
BSN, the OR supervisor at Piedmont Atlanta (Ga.) Hospital. You'll
cause delays in your schedule if the circulator is helping in the room
instead of interviewing the patient and assisting in bringing the [next]
patient back, she says. OSM
E-mail
doconnor@outpatientsurgery.net
.
