phase. This also reduces nausea and vomiting issues." Follow-up
phone calls have determined that most of these patients don't require
pain medications for 8 to 12 hours after discharge, she adds.
Sidestepping general anesthesia and its attendant complications can
also in many cases speed patients toward those discharges by elimi-
nating long wake-ups. "There's a decreased recovery phase as most
receive light sedation. The patient is awake and ready to leave soon-
er," says Diane Gress, RN, the OR and PACU manager at Memorial
Hospital and Health Care Center in Jasper, Ind.
Surgical patients don't keep an eye on the clock the way your staff
does, but you can rest assured that they appreciate these efficient
routes. "Post-op pain control with regional anesthesia not only is safer
for patients, it improves patient satisfaction scores through the roof
when a patient is wide awake in PACU with absolutely no pain," says
Darren Long, MSN, CRNA, from Avita Health Care System in Galion,
Ohio. This patient comfort and clarity stands to boost your bottom
line by delivering more referrals to your surgical schedule.
Regional techniques also mean business for your facility in expand-
ing your potential case volume and case mix during the surgical day,
says Sundar Rajendran, MD, an anesthesiologist at the Surgical Center
at Premier in Colorado Springs, Colo. "Continuous peripheral nerve
blocks enable us to perform more complicated cases on an outpatient
basis, and allow us to do more cases with less resources," he says.
Build on experience
Regional anesthesia carries many advantages for patients,
providers and facilities, but the techniques won't reach their full
potential for optimal outcomes and efficient throughput if they're
administered — or mishandled, or sparsely applied or avoided
entirely — by inexperienced hands. Training, confidence and the
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