to establish more appropriate times for patients to show up before
their procedures," says Mr. Guzik.
Bon Secours also uses Care Cards, which are simply 5-by-7 index
cards, to keep staff informed about a patient's specific clinical needs
or concerns. Staff note patients' issues or concerns on the cards,
which stay with the patients' cards from pre-op to PACU. If, for exam-
ple, a patient had a bad IV stick during a previous surgery or got sick
at home after general anesthesia, they shouldn't have to voice those
concerns to staff during every handoff between providers. Those
issues are noted on the card, and each staff member who gets handed
a chart should mention the specific concern to the patient, so patients
know staff is aware of it.
2. Music therapy
In addition to standard calming techniques, more facilities are using
music and aromatherapy to help ease patients' pre-op anxiety. In
fact, a recent study showed patients who listened to music through
headphones minutes before receiving a peripheral nerve block expe-
rienced similar decreases in anxiety levels as patients who were
administered 1mg to 2mg of midazolam before the block was placed
(osmag.net/8XCAyt).
"The study is proof that there are drug-free alternatives to help
calm a patient before certain procedures," says study co-author
Veena Graff, MD, an assistant professor or anesthesia and critical
care medicine at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, Pa. "Based on our
findings, we now provide our ambulatory surgical center patients
who want to listen to music with access to disposable headphones.
Ultimately, our goal is to offer music as an alternative to help
patients relax during their perioperative period.
Although previous studies have shown music's calming effect on
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