Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
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the anesthesiologist. Beyond the safety of patients, many facility managers are concerned about the safety of their employees when it comes to dealing with extremely heavy patients. The limit for patients at the Digestive Disease Associates Endoscopy Suite in Branford, Conn., for example, is a rela- tively modest 300 pounds. And "it isn't as much about the patients, as it is a safety concern for the staff," says nurse manager Carol Dynderski, RN, ADN. Heavier patients are a problem, she says, "because we don't have anything except our own backs. We're a very small facility. We don't have Hoyer Lifts or other tools to lift patients. It's just us. We have to do what we can do safely for us." Equipment challenges "Our table weight limit is the limiting factor," says an Anchorage, Alaska facility leader, echoing a sentiment expressed by numerous respondents. The nurse director of a North Carolina eye clinic says they decide on a case-by-case basis, adding that they "now have an OR table that will accommodate up to 450 pounds." Others say they've acquired tables that are built to accommodate as much as 600 or 700 pounds. A few say they can go as high as 1,000, if necessary. At the Summit Orthopaedic Surgery Center in Newnan, Ga., patients are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, says nurse administrator Heather Atkinson, RN, and tables can accommodate up to 1,000 pounds. But they make sure "extra staff, including anesthesia, and a video laryngo- scope are always available for difficult airway management." Though it's well established that heavier patients often have challeng- ing airways, and are more prone to respiratory issues, only about one- fourth of our respondents say they make sure to have extra anesthesia providers and/or extra anesthesia equipment on hand when treating 5 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6