Outpatient Surgery Magazine

OR Excellence Awards 2015 - September 2015 - Subscribe to 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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"Regional blocks are a huge part of our ambulato- ry center's success." By their own count, Andrews' anesthesia team has administered 20,253 blocks between the center's 2007 opening and this past June, for an average of 300 a month. But regional isn't the only route to effective post-op, non-opioid pain control. "Blocks are the way to go, but if you can't give a block, we have protocols set up for alterna- tives," says Ms. Holder. A 1,000 mg dose of IV acetaminophen was standard for a range of procedures, she says, until the manufacturer was acquired by a larger firm and the product's price doubled, after which the center switched to an equivalent oral dosage. The anesthesia providers' pain manage- ment toolbox also includes the analgesic gabapentin (300 mg orally), the steroid dexamethasone (for its anti-inflammatory and anti-nausea effects) and local anesthetics (both single-shot and continuous catheter infusion pumps), among other options for reaching different pain receptor sites. Dr. Hickman notes that he and his staff are not opposed to the use of opioids when they're necessary, and on occasion they are. For example, sinus surgeries, tonsillectomies, adenoidectomies and other ENT cases can be quite painful, but there's no regional block for the head. And opioids are an effective remedy when a blocked 7 8 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 O N L I N E | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 z MAN WITH A PLAN "Regional blocks are a huge part of an ambulatory center's success," says Gregory Hickman, MD, med- ical director and director of anesthesia at the Andrews Institute. Andrews Institute ASC O R E X C E L L E N C E AWA R D S O R E X C E L L E N C E AWA R D S

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