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putes NPO times once you enter the patient's arrival time — and that
they were playing a lot less phone tag, they were full-steam ahead.
We expected that texting would improve our no-show and NPO
compliance rates. It has, but not by much. The decrease in NPO viola-
tions has been barely perceptible: 0.22% in 2017 to 0.20% so far this
year. Parents might misread apple juice as apple sauce. Some moth-
ers have a hard time denying their hungry, crying child breast milk.
And, of course, some industrious kids just can't help sneaking a snack
unbeknownst to their parents.
Cost-benefit ratio
The cost is reasonable. We spent about $6,000 to build and customize
our ambulatory surgery texting app and pay another $6,000 per year
based on texting 100 patients daily — about 60 hospital patients and 40
surgery center patients per day. But you really can't set a price on a
text's magical ability to help ease parents' stress about their child's sur-
gery.
OSM
Ms. McLane (natalie.mclane@chp.edu) is the unit director of the Same Day
Surgery and Recovery Unit at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
(UPMC) Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Dr. Dickman (jennifer.dick-
man@chp.edu) is the director of the UPMC Children's North Surgery Center.
