"Pre-op has always been environmentally warm, and we provide a
blanket as well," she says, "but we're now looking at pre-op warming
versus starting intraoperatively."
Although she currently uses a fluid warmer, Ms. Dill has one more
item on her warming wish list for 2017: a temperature-controlled warm-
ing cabinet for IV fluids.
Then there's the Surgery Center of Idaho, a multispecialty facility
focused primarily on urology. Patients enduring shorter procedures
receive warmed cotton blankets, beginning in pre-op. The surgical
team will continually monitor the patient's temperature and, if need-
ed, use a "mummy wrap" to maintain normothermia, says Samantha
Owens, BSN, RN, who oversees regulatory compliance and infection
control for the Meridian, Idaho-based facility.
Last year, the facility invested in a forced-air warming system, which
was doable because the system's manufacturer provided the unit at no
cost, meaning the center now has to pay only for the blankets — a
cost of less than $30 each. The center uses the forced-air warming
blanket for longer procedures, including vasectomy reversals and
some prostate cases, which Ms. Owens says can take more than 4
hours, and the system follows the patient from the OR to the PACU.
"It really depends on the length of surgery — case by case and
patient by patient," she says.
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