opposed to the frigid Mountain States.
"For the most part, we don't do big procedures where pre-warming
would be required," Ms. Klinkowski says. "If cases go longer than an
hour, we will put warming devices on the patient in the OR. If it's
under an hour, it's negotiable, depending on the case."
In other words, patients are warmed reliably only in PACU, based
on the patient's temperature. Ms. Klinkowski does, however, consider
forced-air warming a tidy way to limit expenses. Each forced-air
warming blanket costs roughly $10, she says, which she considers
"pretty cheap" compared to ongoing costs of readily available alterna-
tives.
Take warmed cotton blankets, for example. A study in the Journal
of PeriAnesthesia Nursing shows that using forced-air warmers can
save $1,235 per year over the warmed blankets, which bear the weight
of additional ongoing costs, including laundry and delivery.
"There's the recovery benefit, too," says Ms. Klinkowski, adding that
it can be difficult to quantify. "When you're not shaking, it promotes
healing. There's less pain and you heal faster when the body tempera-
ture is maintained. And that's a good thing for everybody."
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