dantespikiks

thanks for the feedback!

Good day everyone, I'm currently the Acting Unit Coordinator for my hospitals PACU, this year we've decided to seek ways to minimize patients lengths of sty in the unit a sour performance improvement plan. However, being in a third world country, our standards for care are radically different from the more advanced countries out there. In my unit we use the Aldrete Scale to assess PACU recovery, we're transitioning to using the RASS in place of the Modified Ramsay Scale, and we're using spinal dermatomes and the bromage scale to assess the recovery of neuraxial blocks. One problem we occasionally encounter, especially in foreign patients, is that they complain why it takes so long for them to be transferred back to the ward. I've read about how patients generally stay in the PACU for less than 2 hours, being transported to the ward as soon as they are stable. In my latest census, for the past year, only 30% of patients stayed for less than 2 hours, most of them stayed between 2-6 hours, and we have a couple of boarders staying beyond 8 hours. most of our patients staying beyond 8 hours are either post-General anesthesia patients who have yet to wake up, or post neuraxial block patients whose dermatome and motor levels have not recovered fully yet. I'm just curious whether the practice is internationally mandated that these patients need to stay in the unit for that long or is it fine to send them back to the ward as soon as there are signs of recovery? Any input would be great, thanks!

Hi guys, I just wanted to ask, is there a standard/ideal or policy on how long a patient is allowed to stay in the PACU? for example, should steps be taken in case a patient given spinal anesthesia fully recovers movement and sensation after a very long time? (e.g. 8 hours)