patient outcomes to be gained by preventing hypothermia, from faster discharge
to reduced post-op pain and blood loss to fewer surgical site infections. "All
sorts of bad things happen from being cold," says James H. Philip, ME(E), MD,
CCE, an anesthesiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a pro-
fessor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School.
Brigham and Women's has had a universal warming policy since the mid-90s.
As soon as a patient enters the OR, he's fitted with 3 devices: warming gown,
pulse oximeter and blood pressure cuff. "It is the first thing we do," says Dr.
Philip. "I haven't seen more than one patient shiver since we started our policy. I
don't have any good measures of patient satisfaction, but I know that every one
of them says thank you and every one wakes up saying he or she is warm and
comfortable."
4 2 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
