S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 4 3
T
he total knee patients at Houston Physicians' Hospital
tend to feel surprisingly good after surgery. At times,
they've felt a little too good. "Patients were flexing their
knees so much on the first post-op day that we had to
tell them to back off a little bit," says Patricia Ford, MSN,
RN, the chief nursing officer. "We were getting feedback from sur-
geons that some incisions weren't healing well because patients were
flexing too much."
How did it come about that this year's OR Excellence Award winner
for pain control actually had to rein patients in to keep them from bolt-
ing out of the gate? Credit the hospital's multifaceted initiative to
implement and standardize best practices that educate patients, mini-
PAIN CONTROL
When Total Joint Patients
Want to Kick Up Their Heels
At Houston Physicians' Hospital, a multifaceted initiative
has dramatically improved pain scores and recoveries.
Houston
Physicians'
Hospital
• GROUP EFFORT From pre-admission to discharge, just about
everybody contributes to pain control at Houston Physicians' Hospital.