A U G U S T 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 5
but it was easy (and much less expensive!) to make our own. We
bought all we needed at the office supply store: the erase board (50" x
96"), magnetic strips, round magnets, a label maker and pinstriping
tape. With a ruler, we used the pinstriping tape to make daily grids of
blocked time segments for our 5 ORs and every day of the week. Next
we made labels of all the procedures we perform and stuck the labels
on the magnetic strips. The green round magnets show when a case is
scheduled to end — and help us prevent overloading PACU.
Our OR team huddles around the board in the morning for 5 min-
utes to look over the day's cases and confirm rooms are fully staffed
and equipment is in place. They reconvene for 10 minutes in the after-
noon to make sure they're ready for the next day's cases. You might
say our board is a bit of a mess, but that's actually its name: MESS,
short for Method, Equipment, Supplies and Staff.
Rachel Graham, MSN, RN, CNOR
Randolph Health
Asheboro, N.C.
rwgraham52@yahoo.com
