TIME TO TOUCH BASE Tara Shelton, RN, checks the whiteboard to see when it's time to check on her patients at the Owensboro (Ken) Surgery Center.

The Long And Lonely Wait
Case Delayed? Let Pre-op Patients Know

When did a pre-op nurse last check on that patient in bay No. 2? She's been lying there for 45 minutes with the curtain pulled around her. Maybe the surgeon is running late or maybe a case is running long. Whatever the reason for the delay, nobody's told the patient because nobody's bothered to check in on her. On our satisfaction surveys, some of our patients who had longer-than-usual wait times in pre-op noted they felt like we'd forgotten about them. We came up with a simple way to prevent this from happening. We keep a small dry erase board at the nurse's station that lists what time the patient arrived, what bay they're in, what time the pre-op assessment was completed and when they're due for a 30-minute check. So when those inevitable delays happen, now at least our patients know that we care enough to look in on them.

Lyzette Galloway, RN, CASC
Owensboro (Ken) Surgery Center
[email protected]