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O C T O B E R 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
First, we added a standing order to the surgeon's order set that includ-
ed 1 gram IV of the analgesic given pre-operatively in the holding room.
For 6 months, from February to July 2013, we gave this medication to all
the surgeon's laparoscopic hernia and cholecystectomy patients who
were between the ages of 18 and 50.
We completed data collection sheets on each patient who fell into
the category for this study. The data we collected included:
• medical record and account number;
• pre-operative pain;
• IV analgesic (yes or no);
• rescue medications (morphine, dilaudid, fentanyl or pain pill);
• arrival time at surgery center to post-op (minutes);
• discharge pain (rated on a numeric scale of 0 to 10); and
• discharge time from surgery center (minutes).
The retrospective data collection was much harder. The time period
for this data was before the use of IV analgesic, from January to June
2010. The data analyst at our hospital created a list of 54 random
patients with the specific criteria we were looking for, as noted above
in the data collection list. We had to dig through our computer system
to look up this information. It was a very time-consuming process.
Just as every study has its barriers, ours did as well. We wanted to
collect data on at least 54 patients who had not received the IV anal-
gesic as well as at least 54 who had received the analgesic, but unfortu-
nately 16 were admitted to the hospital instead of being outpatient. At
the end of the study, we had reviewed 36 patients who had received IV
analgesic and 38 who did not receive IV analgesic. Given all that, here
are the answers from our study.
•
Does IV analgesic reduce the number of rescue medications?
Yes. The
mean number of medications per patient who received IV analgesic
