outpatient/ambulatory care nursing

[greenside1]

Please help!!!

I work as a nurse in the ACC unit of a local hospital. The hospital recently hired a new CEO who is making huge changes. Hospital administration is looking at having all outpatient surgery patients to start in one area of the hospital- preoperatively- meaning one nurse does your pre op paperwork and assessment. After surgery, the patients go to another unit for post op care- not the same nurse caring for the patient, or even the same area. I feel this can weigh heavily on nursing care and patient safety. Does anyone out there work in this kind of environment? I really need some answers. How does this change of hands for patient care affect overall patient safety? Please help.

[mamalle]

very normal here in our outpatient surgery center. preop is in another area then pacu- preop is not as trained as pacu- we all have critical care backgrounds and er. it has always flowed well and never a issue. I couldn't imagine with the amount of patients we see in a day a better set up. we have one on one care with our general anesthesia and 2 on one with kids in pacu- I couldnt imagine trying to preop a patient right next to patient that is recoverying. I thought that was the norm actually. Im not sure what you mean about patient's safety either-If the proper policy and procedures are followed through from preop/or and pacu- it shouldnt be a issue..

[greenside1]

very normal here in our outpatient surgery center. preop is in another area then pacu- preop is not as trained as pacu- we all have critical care backgrounds and er. it has always flowed well and never a issue. I couldn't imagine with the amount of patients we see in a day a better set up. we have one on one care with our general anesthesia and 2 on one with kids in pacu- I couldnt imagine trying to preop a patient right next to patient that is recoverying. I thought that was the norm actually. Im not sure what you mean about patient's safety either-If the proper policy and procedures are followed through from preop/or and pacu- it shouldnt be a issue..

Yes, we have that too. But I mean a patient comes for a cholecystectomy, for example. This patient comes in to one area of the the hospital to sign all paperwork and do a short assessmet with one nurse. Then the patient goes to surgery AND the pacu, then goes back to another nurse until ready for discharge home. So the patient had a nurse pre op, a nurse in the pacu, and then finally a different nurse for continued post op recovery until going home. We used to admit our patients and send them to surgery, then get them back from pacu to recover until going home. Now the patient has to have a different nurse pre op and post op. I believe this is a patient saftey issue. Please advise.