6 5
A P R I L 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
their scheduled surgeries. Our chief spine surgeon wanted them to
use the wipes for 5 days. With the availability of pre-filled/soaked sin-
gle-use CHG wipes, getting patients to carry out the task is fairly easy
and inexpensive. For patients who come to our pre-surgical planning
meetings, we have a basket of wipes that we make sure they take
home with them. And when we have out-of-towners planning to come
in for surgery, we just instruct them to go to their local pharmacies
and pick up the wipes.
To monitor compliance, when patients show up for their proce-
dures, we ask them in the pre-op holding area whether they used the
wipes, and if so, for how many days. About 80% report using them for
at least 2 days, if not the 3 to 5 that we recommend.
S K I N P R E P P I N G
ALL FOR ONE A few of our physicians had to be convinced to stan-
dardize preps, but they came around when we showed them the data.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
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