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ORX Awards and the Winners Are ... - September 2014 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

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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1 2 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 | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 4 Adequately warmed patients have "a decreased incidence of tachycardia and hypertension in PACU," notes Charles DeFrancesco, MD, staff anesthesiologist at Delmont Surgery Center in Greensburg, Pa. "Both are related to peripheral vaso- constriction and the body's stressor response to hypothermia." And speaking of cardiac-related issues, a clinical director we heard from notes the "reduced incidence of arrhythmias" as anoth- er benefit. How significant might that be? A recent study ( tinyurl.com/nuj9rka ) suggests that patients who experience arrhyth- mias after non-cardiac surgery may face an increased risk of stroke somewhere down the road. 3 It's best to warm patients throughout the perioperative process. The benefits of warming typi- cally start in pre-op and continue until the patient is ready to leave. "We warm patients from pre-op to post-op," says another clini- cian. "It takes more anesthesia to put cold patients to sleep, plus warm patients are happy patients." And post-op? "Warmed patients respond better to pain medication, and wake up faster," says a director of nursing at another facility, an observation shared by Stephanie Wright, ADN, BSN, director of sur- gery for the perioperative area at St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho. "Patients seem to need fewer narcotics, they wake up faster, and there's less time spent rewarming them in PACU," says Ms. Wright. P A T I E N T W A R M I N G Pamela Bevelhymer, RN, BSN BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER It's best to warm patients throughout the perioperative process.

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