2 pts in the same OR room?!?!?!

Specialties Operating Room

Published

OK, heres the story...a new nurse came to work with us and mentioned that this one place (in cincinati perhaps?) would put 2 carpal tunnels in the SAME OR ROOM and the surgeon would do one then rescrub and the do the other and like an assembly line pump out as many CTR as possible.

so my NM got wind of this and trys to help these docs walk on water so she of course thinks its a great idea to at least see if they can do it, and get some symatics done. the doc loves the fact that shes doing this and of course he wants to pump out as many CTR as he can. WOW

now me and basically all the other nurses have a multitude of issues and feelings about this and we can see many issues. does anyone else do this? my friend called the health dept to see what they said (behind NM back) and they didnt have a direct answer for her and wanted her number to get back to her, but she didnt give out our number and hung up. i would love to see everyones thoughts and feelings. BTW it is a small independantly owned (meaning the docs own the building/company) surgery center that is within a huge building which contains doc offices(the ones that own the company of course) and a huge PT area and dept. we have 3 OR suites, 3 pre-op bays, 6 PACU bays.

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Specializes in ER.

Do these surgeries get done under local or general anesthesia?

Do you even have a room big enough?

If one patient has complications what happens to the second one?

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This kind of stuff happens in Army tent hospitals, but I would not tolerate it in a civilian hospital. If one patient has hepatitis, HIV, or MRSA, I would not want to be the patient next to him with an open surgical wound, even if it is just a carpal tunnel.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

Wow! I am speechless (and that doesn't happen too often!)

It's one thing in an Army tent in a battlezone. It's another thing in a civilian hospital, especially if its being done to increase revenue, and not due to lack of facilities.

I have to suspect that patients would object if they were made aware of this arrangement. Talk about increased risk of infection, and wrong site surgery!

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

It's one thing in an Army tent in a battlezone. It's another thing in a civilian hospital, especially if its being done to increase revenue, and not due to lack of facilities.

I have to suspect that patients would object if they were made aware of this arrangement. Talk about increased risk of infection, and wrong site surgery!

:yeahthat:

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"Do these surgeries get done under local or general anesthesia?

Do you even have a room big enough?

If one patient has complications what happens to the second one?"

CTR is done under local/mac.

the room is big enough to put 2 carts in there...they put a sheet between the 2 beds using 2 IV poles and some clips.

i wonder what happens to pt #2..are they sedated so they dont know whats going on? what if pt #1 starts to have an MI or some other issue, should we sedate pt #2 so they dont know whats going on? come on! this is so bananas its not even funny. how can our NM just say NO! this is not a good idea and we wont entertain it any further.

we even had 2 rooms one day dedicated to this MD, we cranked out 4 CTR in 45 min. how is that not fast enough. apparently this MD was at work today and would really like to see this tried out.

"It's one thing in an Army tent in a battlezone. It's another thing in a civilian hospital, especially if its being done to increase revenue, and not due to lack of facilities"....exactly! this is definitely done to increase revenue, like i said, these docs own the place.

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>>

What will the surgeons request next? Surgeries in the parking lot? How about the cafeteria? There's lots of room in there.

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exactly

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

Can anyone say, "HIPAA Violation?"

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perhaps that will be covered if pt #2 is sedated with enough versed that they wouldnt remember anything? i love all the comments, keep them coming. and ill let u know if we do it (which im sure we will)

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unbeliveable!!!!

maybe they can skip filling out preop paperwork and assessments to speed things up too. then just have everyone meet in the or to save on transport time. hey, it makes as much sense and is just as safe for the patients.

being a patient advocate not only means that we speak for the patient when the patient can not but, it also means that we speak for them when they are unaware.

if there are not two teams for the patients, one has to ask; did they receive the standard of care that the other patients received? i think not!

this is just wrong in more ways than one!!!!!!!!!!

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Specializes in OR.

What will the surgeons request next? Surgeries in the parking lot? How about the cafeteria? There's lots of room in there.

Drive through surgeries?

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