Outpatient Surgery Magazine

OR Excellence Awards 2016 - September 2016 - 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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"They often end up wishing they'd had the blocks," says Ms. Rackers. "So they ask our anesthesia providers to place the block after surgery." It's an unusual request, but "without hesitation the anesthesia group gets right on it," she says, noting how easy the group is to work with. "They go above and beyond for our patients. And they strive so hard to be team players. They never act as if they're more important than anybody else." Comforting cocktail Regional blocks are just the beginning of the multimodal tack favored by the providers at Capital Region. During the perioperative phase, the staff proactively targets pain in all of its varying manifestations with non-opioid analgesic adjuncts consisting of NSAIDs, acetaminophen, ketamine, and steroids, says Dr. Langton. "These non-opioid agents are particularly helpful with our obese patient population and patients with obstructive sleep apnea," she adds. With discomfort diminished and the sluggishness brought on by opi- oids largely averted, patients can become active participants in the healing process. "When their pain is kept to a minimum, patients want to get up to do their exercises and get on with the activities of daily living," says Ms. Rackers. "That accelerates their healing process. The feedback from the patients on this is excellent. They get to go home sooner because they're able to follow doctors' orders sooner." And when they get home they're likely to talk to neighbors, friends and family about how much less traumatic the whole expe- rience was than they'd anticipated. Quality pain management "leaves a very satisfied patient who tells others about their experience," says Ms. Rackers. "And in a small community like this, word gets around quickly." — Jim Burger S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 5 1

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