Anesthesia leaves room, normal??

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I was just wondering if anyone else has had an issue with anesthesia leaving the room. Is this normal? I came from a very large teaching facility where anesthesia never left the patient. I am now in a small community hospital and my anesthesia provider will leave the room for many different reasons. When I first started I would tell them that I could have gotten that bag of LR when they return to the room. Some would say cool, thanks. But others would say that it was ok they can get it. Some providers would leave and not be seen for more than 5 minutes. I would look into the core and down the hall for them but they would not be anywhere around.

I was told that they do pretty much whatever they want to. I have been in the OR for 4-5 years. Am I missing something? Would I have surgery here? I don't think so. I feel like I am in a place that is not good for me.

Specializes in Surgery.

Wow, this is a touchy subject. Well, I thought about it and after an incident I brought the subject up in our unit council meeting. We had a few minutes to spare and I put my head on the chopping block and told them what was going on. When I told the manager what was going on there were about 4 people that said "yeah" someone is saying something about it. One nurse who has been in the OR a very long time just starred at and said " what are you talking about?" She was so surprised and said they never leave her room. Then everyone chimed in, it was awesome. My manager will be bringing it up in the next big meeting where the attendees are the head of anesthesia (guilty of leaving) doctors, charge nurses, directors, etc.

So, the incident that happened last week...the patient was just intebated, I was prepping, the surgeon was gowning up and anesthesia was headed for the door. The patient was not fully under anesthesia because the patient started to wake and was trying to grab things with both arms, including the tube in the mouth! I called out to anesthesia, he didn't really acknowledge me until my voice was raised on the second call out. Umm he ran back to his machine and......did something to stop all the movement. Good thing he didn't make it out the door, I would not know what to have done but hold the patient down as I did. No harm to the patient. I got another prep kit out and continued.

So, what would anyone else do in that situation? What if anesthesia WAS out of the room?

Oh yeah I wanted to mention that we usually have a float crna like we do RN's. They do come in and give breaks, so it is not like they are forgotten or neglected. If they have to pee they page the float crna.

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Specializes in CCU, OR.

That should have been written up on an incident report for several reasons.

First, your patient may have been much more aware of what was going on than anyone realizes. That could be grounds for a law suit.

Second, the doc did harm to his patient by leaving him.

Third, it is a gross violation of patient safety/patient trust

Fourth, I bet it's a violation of policy of your institution.

The more often the docs/CRNA's get written up in incident reports, the faster risk management will take note of what's going on and will investigate the docs/CRNAs- and will also start auditing charts to see if there is any kind of pattern of complications that develop because of thise practice.

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Specializes in Cath Lab, OR, CPHN/SN, ER.

I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to bring this up at your meeting and hope there is resolution!

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Specializes in OPERATING ROOM, ICU.

The anesthesia provider does not leave the OR, period. They accompany the patient into the OR with the RN, and they stay with the patient until transfer of care occurs in Recovery. We usually have one CRNA who is assigned to give breaks and lunches. The MDA's sometimes have to help out. Bottom line, none of the RNs I work with would ever tolerate that kind of negligent care.

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Specializes in OR.

Our CRNA's bring the patient to the room and stay with them until they report off in PACU when all is said and done. We're lucky enough to have plenty of anesthesia staff. We have anesthesia techs who each cover a few rooms. They're responsible for turning over the equipment, setting up for the next case, and running for anything anesthesia needs during the case. I rarely need to step out to get anything for them. In the 2+ years I've been there I've never heard of a patient being left unattended by anesthesia. And believe me, I'd hear about it :eek:

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Specializes in anesthesia.

I am a CRNA with 15 years experience and anesthesia professionals need to be monitoring the patient second by second. These anesthesia personnel are extremely negligiant and are endangering your patients. I am amazed that the surgeons condone this practice. Please, please, please contact the risk management people at your hospital. If they choose not to pursue this your next option is the State Medical Board. Your patients deserve to receive good care and you must advocate for them

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Specializes in Operating Room (and a bit of med/surg).

I work in a teaching hospital, and so sometimes our anesthesia docs will leave a senior resident with the patient... but usually they let us know where they're going, and are always available to come back right away. But that doesn't sound like what's happening at your hospital. That's scary that they disappear!!

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I've been in the O.R. for over 30 years. I work in a hospital where all of the anesthesiologists leave the room --for whatever reason they choose. This is the first place I've worked this occurs. My previous experience has been in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. In one hospital, one of the anesthesiologists would bring a thermos of coffee and stand in the sub sterile room to have his cup of coffee. Rest room breaks were provided by other anesthesiologists that were between cases. So, needless to say, I was very surprised when I started working at my current hospital.

Another issue with anesthesiologists is the practice of bringing their personal lap top to the O.R. and surfing the web or watching a movie during the case. Yikes!:nono:

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Specializes in CTICU.

Lord knows practices change between hospitals, country v. city, etc. BUT I have worked in 3 countries, including several years as a device rep in ORs and have NEVER seen a patient left unattended by anesthesia. Period. Just not acceptable for a helpless, unconscious patient to be left alone (and yes, it's essentially alone - the other people in the room have no idea what to do with the anesthesia equipment).

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Specializes in anesthesia.

Once again the anesthesia provider must be in the room at all times. However, sometimes it might seem as if they are not paying attention when reading at the machine but almost all MDA/CRNAs are innately a tuned to the tone of the pulse ox. This monitor's rhythm and tone indicates adequate BP, quality and speed of pulsations, and oxygenation

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Specializes in Critical care.

The only time I've ever heard of anesthesia leaving the room is during open heart surgery when the patient goes on bypass. I don't really agree with that but the rationale one CRNA gave me is "there is nothing we can do while the pt is on bypass and it's not like the pt comes off bypass in a split second, there is time for us to come back."

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Specializes in anesthesia.

I agree, all you are is a bed mover during the pump run and the circulator can do that

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