Discharge Instructions Done Right
For patients, surgery's a big step, but it's not the last step in the process. There's still recovery, which continues on their own watch after you discharge them from PACU. You're sending them and their family members off with some important responsibilities, but there are ways to ensure they'll understand and follow your post-op care instructions.

— Compiled by David Bernard

• Last things first. Patients aren't at their best when they're recovering from anesthesia. They're often groggy, to say the least. Their caregivers are understandably distracted, as well. So you can't expect them to listen to and remember much of the post-op care instructions you're reciting in the minutes before they're discharged. That's why you should consider delivering discharge details before they're taken to pre-op. Patients and family members are likely to be more attentive and ask more questions during a quick sit-down ahead of time than in the post-anesthesia haze of PACU.



• On-screen guide. You might even consider producing a short instructional video to have patients and families watch as part of the intake process. In a couple of minutes, one of your staff members can describe how to handle minor aches and pains, identify potential complications, return to daily routines and take care of other post-op basics, making sure that every patient gets the same discharge information the same way. If your patient population is bilingual, you can record versions in a second language as well. Then you can spend post-op time reviewing case-specific instructions.



• Customized to the case. You'll always send patients home with printed post-op care instructions, of course, but make sure those guidelines are easy to understand and directly relevant to their cases. If you create a library of customizable, printable instructions based on specific procedures and surgeons' preferences on your facility's intranet, you'll always be able to print off a clean page of useful information for patients instead of handing them a faded copy of a copy of outdated, one-size-fits-all directions.



• Make it visible. To prevent post-op care instructions from getting lost among all the other paperwork that you give patients at discharge, and that they may have piled up at home, print the guidelines on colored paper or tuck them into a colored folder. They'll stand out, even in a stack of other documents.

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