Ideas That Work: Talk Fire Safety When Patients Are Listening

SPARE THE DETAILS Patients don't want to hear that the fire risk is "high" during their procedures.

Talk Fire Safety When Patients Are Listening

The last thing conscious sedation patients want to hear is "we have a high fire risk." A surgeon challenged us to come with a way to address fire safety during pre-op time outs that wouldn't alarm patients who are already anxious. We used to say the risk of fire is low, medium or high, or rate it on a scale of 1 to 10. Now we discuss specific risk factors involved in the case, such as giving the alcohol-based prep enough time to dry and stopping supplemental oxygen before we cauterize. Drilling down to those details informs members of the team to be aware of every potential fire risk without stressing out the patient.

Gina Hartman, RN
Rockford (Ill.) Ambulatory Surgery Center
[email protected]