Albany, Ga., surgery center.
2. Conduct pre-operative equipment tests. Check your monitors in
the morning to ensure you have proper connections and can take pic-
tures. And to prevent delays, check cords and scopes before you hook
them up.
3. Make sure patients arrive early. This is key if you're administer-
ing regional blocks before procedures. And if you're going to be flip-
ping rooms (more on that below), you need to make sure there's time
for surgeons to mark patients.
4. Tell patients the day before surgery when to arrive. Patients get
annoyed when schedules change. "We used to tell patients in advance
what time they should arrive," says Donna Quinn, RN, BSN, MBA,
CPAN, CAPA, whose 2 New Hampshire facilities did nearly 4,000 ortho-
pedic cases last year. "But we frequently had changes in our schedule
because something came up. When we'd call patients and tell them
their times had changed, they'd get upset." The solution: Get patients'
medical histories and all other details well in advance, but tell them
you'll call them the afternoon before surgery to tell them when to
arrive. Patients are fine with the arrangement, there's less grumbling,
and if patients have special requests, or are coming from very far away,
the center is happy to work with them.
5. Educate patients. "Let's be real," says Ms. Quinn. "Surgeons don't
always provide that much education." Don't just tell patients what
they'll have to keep in mind after surgery — like that it's a good idea
to have meals prepared ahead of time, or that if they're going to be on
crutches, they should put all scatter rugs away. Also tell them what
not to do before surgery. "We had a guy scheduled for shoulder sur-
gery who decided to clear all the brush in his yard because he knew
he wouldn't be able to do it afterward," she says. "He came in all
scraped up and we had to cancel the surgery. Now we tell people to
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