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physicians' office visits or surgery scheduling calls sufficient to spur
patients into antiseptic action. But researchers from the Medical
College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee believe that electronic interven-
tion can improve patients' compliance, as they explained in a study
published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College
of Surgeons. Researchers asked 80 volunteers to shower with a CHG
liquid soap for 2 or 3 days. Half of the volunteers received text mes-
sages reminding them to shower with the antiseptic. The researchers
found that those who'd received the texts also had about 66% higher
skin-surface concentrations of CHG, not to mention less of the soap
left over at the end of the study.
Do you wash the surgical site in pre-op,
before the skin is prepped in the OR?
• Yes: 44% • No: 56%
"If we are in doubt it happened, we do it again," says Justine Murphy,
RN, BSHA, director of perioperative services at Brandywine Hospital
in Coatesville, Pa., adding that CHG-permeated wipes make a quick
pre-op cleanse convenient.
"We recently began writing the recommended CHG wash on the
medication reconciliation form," says Nancy Wynne, BSN, RN, nurse
manager at MetroWest Medical Center in Natick, Mass. "That way the
topic is revisited pre-operatively on the day of surgery to confirm the
wash occurred."
If it didn't, the surgeon is informed that the patient declined to do
so. But, she says, "no MD has ordered a pre-op bath to make up for
it." OSM
E-mail
db ernard@outpatientsurg ery.net
.
P R E - O P B A T H I N G
