Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/519657
1 2 S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E J U N E 2 0 1 5 ing: Well, we'll see how things go. If they expect to ambulate at a certain point and expect to go home the same day, they're much more likely to do so. You also need to be sure to talk to family members. Everybody should be on the same page. • Time has to be carefully managed. Maintaining the schedule is paramount. There should be a strict timeline. Say the first patient of the day arrives at 5:30 a.m. Registration should start at 5:40 and be done by 5:50. At 6, the patient should be walking or being escorted to pre-op. He or she should be in the holding area by 6:45. All nerve blocks should be started outside the OR, and at 7 the first cut should be made. If any delays happen, they need to be documented and ulti- mately corrected. • What about those surgeons who show up late? Surgeons need to be on time or risk losing their block time. It's not fair to insist that patients and staff show up on time, but not the surgeon. Everybody has to be accountable. • Maximize surgeon efficiency. Surgeons should be able to seamlessly move between 2 ORs, switching rooms while the PA closes and the staff turns over that room and brings in the next patient. Turnover should be one of the respon- sibilities of the OR team. • Are all patients candidates? Patients with certain comorbidities, like sleep apnea or morbid obesity, aren't good outpatient candidates. But insurance is actually the primary determiner of whether a given patient can be done on an outpatient basis. Some insurers still insist on inpatient stays. • What can facilities that successfully implement outpatient total joint programs expect? They can expect increased patient and family satisfaction, increased physician satisfaction and increased staff satisfaction. They can also expect fewer compli- cations and ultimately a cost savings of several thousand dollars per case, if not more. OSM