AORN journal
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In surgical suites when ORs sometimes run late, nurse anesthetists or perioperative nurses may be scheduled to work a second shift to cover procedures. Nurse anesthetists' OR workload in the afternoons can differ from that of perioperative nurses. ⋯ Managers do not need hospital information systems staff members to provide data from both anesthesia billing and OR information systems to make second-shift staffing decisions. One or the other is adequate.
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Patient delays in the preoperative area are frustrating to patients, staff members, and physicians. These delays result in indirect costs that waste resources and decrease revenue. ⋯ A 7% reduction in delays occurred as a result of the project. Although the change was not statistically significant, it was clinically significant.
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Despite OR practice improvements, approximately 50% of second or subsequent surgical procedures will not start on time because of procedure duration overruns caused by preceding procedures. Operating room scheduling that uses reliable historical data about specific surgeon and procedure combinations and computerized scheduling systems can minimize overruns. Statistical variability in procedure durations, however, implies that one-half of the procedures will run longer than the calculated mean, resulting in wait times for time-scheduled surgeons and their patients. Managers must understand the tradeoffs between the competing goals of surgical throughput and decreasing patient wait times in their efforts to optimize the OR schedule.
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Undergoing surgery with local anesthesia is stressful because patients often are aware of their surroundings. This study investigated music as a method of reducing patients' anxiety during minor surgery with local anesthesia. For this study, researchers assessed the effectiveness of music as a relaxation modality by measuring patients' vital signs and self-reported anxiety before and after surgery. Study results indicate that patients who listened to their choice of music during surgery experienced significantly lower anxiety levels, heart rates, and blood pressure than patients who did not listen to music.
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Recent media reports have put a spotlight on the increasing number of medical errors occurring in US health care institutions. In contrast to health care's increasing error rate, the aviation industry is experiencing a decreasing error rate. Could the safety techniques used in the aviation industry be applied to health care? This article explores that question. The dynamics of the surgical suite are not unlike those of the cockpit of an airplane; therefore, perioperative services was selected to pilot test the aviation model of safety training.