warmed had an average hypother-
mic temperature of 35.7°C. We also
discovered that pre-warming
reduced the time patients spent in
recovery; patients who were pre-
warmed were discharged 2 minutes
sooner than patients who were not.
Two minutes might not seem like a
significant difference, but it adds
up over time. We perform about
20,000 procedures per year and
estimate the couple minutes saved
during each case would result in
600 fewer hours of PACU time.
We completed our trial at the end
of 2018. There was a general con-
sensus among staff and leadership
that we should continue to pre-warm patients, but we're still working
through how to move forward with the new strategy. Our decision
will be based in part on a couple important lessons we learned during
the trial.
• Consider all options. Our nurses struggled with transitioning the
full-body, forced-air warming gowns into upper- and lower-body cov-
ers because the material was bulky and difficult to manage. Plus, each
disposable gown costs $13, a significant per-case expense based on
the amount of procedures we perform each year. Several convective
and conductive active warming options are available. We'll keep an
open mind as we assess the cost and practical application of each
one, but we'll likely opt for a method that uses mattresses or coverlets
instead of gowns.
M A Y 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 3 3
• AHEAD OF THE COLD Pre-warming keeps a patient's tem-
perature normothermic and lessens the impact of surgery's
cooling effects.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
