Calling PACU

[CarolinaBSN2012]

Just curious if other hospitals require the OR nurse to call PACU to ask if they may bring the patient from surgery to the PACU. I work in a hospital that implemented this about two years ago. It is very frustrating. Th MD and CRNA use two way radios to communicate. We use an electronic board to track patient flow through the peri operative area. Our OR nurses only have access to the wall phone in the room. I find it challenging to go over to the phone and make this required phone call during the most critical time of the surgical experience. Please share your thoughts on this practice and what your procedure is on bringing patients to PACU.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

We call PACU just before we start putting dressings on. This allows us to find out which bay to take the patient to, allows PACU to have the proper monitoring set up (additional cables for a-line, swan, vent if necessary), and then we can focus on the patient as they are waking up. PACU needs this communication so that they can figure out which patient to put where (some are 1:1- peds, critical care pts), some need the isolation bay, a nurse may need to transport a patient, etc. So this actually helps with patient flow. Perhaps you can ask management about having handsets for the circulators or about relocating the wall phone to a more convenient place- ours are right next to the computer the nurse uses for documenting.

[meandragonbrett]

Yep. You need to call out to PACU. We need to know if we need a trach collar, a vent, swan, a-line, etc. Also it gives us a heads up so we know which nurse the patient needs to go to and in which slot.