important information
about your patient to the
facility ahead of time, says
Rena Carney, RN, BSN,
director of nursing at
Dublin Surgery Center.
"Over the past few years,
we have worked hard to
get our patients and physi-
cians on board with using
the pre-admission soft-
ware," she says. "We cur-
rently have about 80% to
90% of our patients using
the software to fill out nec-
essary forms prior to arriv-
ing at our center on the
day of surgery."
At her center, as soon as
patients get on the surgery
schedule, they receive an automated phone call that's sent through the
pre-admission software that directs the patient to go to the website
and fill out the forms online. If they don't fill out the forms as it gets
closer to the surgery date, then the system will send out another pre-
op reminder phone call. A pre-op nurse will call to assist those
patients having trouble completing the online forms, says Ms. Carney.
5. Let patients walk to the OR
Not all pre-operative processes need to be high tech or pricey to
improve patient outcomes. After hearing her mother-in-law rave about a
6 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9
• WALK THIS WAY One way to help alleviate stress in patients is to give
them the choice to walk themselves into the operating room.
Valley
Health
System
