about its safety
and efficiency on
the part of our
surgeons," says
Edwin J.
Villamater, MD,
chief of anesthe-
sia at the
University of
Maryland
Rehabilitation
and Orthopedic Institute in Baltimore. And institutional anesthesia is
a powerful force.
The thing is, if your providers' nerve blocks aren't a consistently
coordinated effort, your surgeons are right, at least until your
patients reach PACU. Regional anesthesia success is all in the tim-
ing. Planning ahead goes a long way toward preventing delays. And
the ability to keep blocks on schedule, even more than the amount
of experience providers have with them or building them into care
plans, is the key to overcoming surgeons' opposition.
One way to keep regional anesthesia from holding up the surgical
schedule is to make a note of it on the surgical schedule as soon as it
becomes a possibility. "If you know up front at the time of scheduling,
it will allow for easier access and time for the block to be placed,"
says Pamela Ledger, RN, MSN, director of nursing at the Ambulatory
Surgery Center at St. Mary in Langhorne, Pa. "Plan with your anesthe-
sia provider so that they have adequate help and the equipment they
need."
Early cases present an ideal opportunity for a head start at the
Illinois Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery Center in Morton
8 4
O U T P A T 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 | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5
z ALL ABOARD "Everyone needs to be educated about the
process, and understand their roles in it," says Carrie Frederick, MD.
Carrie
Frederick,
MD
