with the anesthesi-
ologist, as nothing
about the issue was
noted in the
patient's chart. You
might also learn of
red flags the
patient wouldn't
think to tell you
about: They have a
cold, or their 3-
year-old son has
strep.
• Time to adapt.
CRNA calls provide
an effective layer of
fact-checking that
avoids disqualifying
surprises on the day of surgery. The goal is to act upon the informa-
tion the CRNA gathers in order to reschedule cases to another day in
advance of the patient's arrival, clarify an issue so the surgery can
take place as planned or buy some time to clear the patient for sur-
gery later in the day on which the case was originally scheduled.
We're not changing our day-of-surgery process in light of the new
CRNA calls. Our patients still need to arrive an hour before their
scheduled surgeries. To ensure patient safety, we go over everything
the CRNA covered during the phone call assessment the day before. If
any problems or needs emerged from the phone call, we've likely
already addressed them.
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 3 1
• A STEP AHEAD Day-before anesthesia assessment phone calls from clinicians
like Debbie Paris Teho, CRNA, principal nurse-anesthetist at UCLA Medical Center, Santa
Monica, enable the facility to eliminate same-day cancellations due to unexpected dis-
qualifiers.
Robert
Hernandez
