5 Things to Know about AORN’s New Guideline on OR Design and Maintenance

Are you preparing for a construction project?

Maybe you need to make sure you are following established standards for facility maintenance?

AORN’s new Guideline For Design and Maintenance Of The Surgical Suite addresses evidence-based design, construction and maintenance recommendations for any area within your perioperative setting, according to Byron Burlingame, MS, BSN, RN, CNOR, AORN Senior Perioperative Specialist and lead author of the new guideline.

“Too often perioperative nurses are not involved in a construction project to the degree they need to be to ensure the end-product is optimized for safety and workflow efficiency,” he shares.

With these concerns in mind, the guideline reflects the same language and definitions used in two key standards documents from the Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) that are commonly referenced by design and construction professionals, as well as facility maintenance professionals.

 “The goal with these revised definitions is to get everyone speaking the same language to enhance the functionality and safety of all OR surgical areas,” Burlingame says.

What to Plan For

This new guideline, slated for e-release this summer, replaces the Guideline for Environment of Care, Part II.

Several aspects of the old guideline—including discussion on noise and distraction and traffic patterns—will be addressed in two forthcoming AORN guideline updates currently in development.

Discussion from the old guideline on laminar airflow has been eliminated due to a lack of consistent evidence that is required for AORN to sufficiently rate the evidence used for every guideline recommendation.

5 Things to Know

These 5 key elements of the new guideline are important for all perioperative nurses working in inpatient or outpatient settings to have on their radar:

1. Build internal, then external interdisciplinary teams for design and construction—Begin with building a team of internal representatives from the health care organization, such as:

   • perioperative RNs,
   • sterile processing technicians,
   • scrub persons’ administration,
   • physicians, and
   • representatives from environmental services, infection prevention and other affected disciplines involved in the scope of the project.

   External team representatives should include design specialists such as architects, interior designers and engineers, as well as representatives of equipment manufacturers.




2. Assess risks before you involve an external team—Safety, infection control, fire and other risks should be formally assessed by the internal team.

   Also, the new concept of a security zone—decisions such as door locks and staff versus public access—should be included in these assessments because this is something external designers will be looking at.




3. Rethink traffic pattern area designations—Designations for unrestricted, semi-restricted and restricted areas discussed in the previous guideline have been redefined according to the activities performed in each area, such as: the access pathway, attire, HVAC, and surface requirements.




4. Follow the patient to plan intuitive design—Recommendations for each independent area within the surgical setting are organized in the guideline to follow the patient through the facility as a perioperative patient would—from preoperative, to intraoperative to postoperative care areas—to support throughput efficiency and patient safety.




5. Standardize your maintenance plan—Guidance on day-to-day maintenance of the facility can be found in the last two recommendations of the guideline to support easy access.

These recommendations are also defined in terms reflected in FGI standards to support clear communication with and facilities management for two important steps: monitoring and systematically addressing any issues with maintenance systems such as HVAC.

FREE RESOURCSE FOR MEMBERS

Webinars

New Guideline: Design and Maintenance of the Surgical Suite (1.0 CHs)

Clinical FAQs

Design and Maintenance of the Surgical Suite