Notify patients of the risks before surgery during routine pre-op phone calls.
The more education you provide up front, the more understanding patients
might be in PACU. Immediately alert patients of intubation trouble. Send them
for immediate consults with a dental clinic for broken teeth or an ENT special-
ist for airway edema. The sooner you act to resolve intubation-related issues,
the more likely the patient is to accept your treatment offers and move on. In
the end, paying for the repairs might be less costly than defending your facility
and anesthesia providers against a malpractice lawsuit and rebuilding your rep-
utation in the community.
Have a boilerplate letter on file that's customizable with information about a
patient's specific airway troubles. Include your contact information, so future
caregivers can reach out for insights about why your providers ran into trou-
ble and how they attempted to solve it. Give copies to patients and their fami-
lies, and tell them to
make the forms a part
of their medical records.
Any time they undergo
surgery, they should
present the letter to the
anesthesia providers,
who'll know to slow
down, approach the air-
way with caution and
assess which alternative
intubation method is
best in order to avoid
trouble.
3 0 S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E January 2015
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