Preoperative fasting: current practice and areas for improvement.

Preoperative fasting aims to increase patient safety by reducing the risk of adverse events during general anaesthesia. However, prolonged fasting may be associated with dehydration, hypoglycaemia and electrolyte imbalance as well as patient discomfort. We aimed to examine compliance with the current best practice guidelines in a large surgical unit and to identify areas for improvement. Adult patients undergoing elective and emergency general, orthopaedic, gynaecology and vascular surgery procedures in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh were surveyed over a 3-month period commencing November 2011. A standardised questionnaire was used to collect information on the duration of preoperative fasting and the advice administered by medical and nursing staff. 292 patients were included. Median fast from solids was 13.5 h for elective patients (IQR 11.5-16) and 17.38 h for emergency patients (IQR 13.68-28.5 h). Similarly, the median fast from fluids was 9.36 h for elective patients (IQR 5.38-12.75 h) and 12.97 h for emergency patients (IQR 8.5-16.22 h). The instructions that elective patients received contributed to prolonged fasting times. The median fast for elective patients fully compliant with fasting advice would be 10 h for solids (IQR 8.75-12 h) and 6.25 h (IQR 3.83-9.25 h) for clear fluids. Elective patients fasted for longer than recommended confirming that clinical practice is slow to change. The use of universal fasting instructions and patient choice are factors that unnecessarily prolong preoperative fasting, which however appears to be multifactorial. Service improvement by abbreviation of the observed fasting periods will rely on targeted staff education and effective clinical communication by provision of written information for both elective and emergency surgical patients. The routine use of preoperative nutritional supplements may need to be re-examined when further evidence is available.

Cost effective computerized decision support: tracking caregiver acceptance at the point of care.

We implemented a computerized decision support tool to standardize the administration of supplemental oxygen (O2) therapy in the acute care (non-ICU) hospital setting. Caregiver acceptance of the computerizeds oxygen therapy protocol (COTP) instructions was measured to determine the clinical performance of the computerized decision support tool. 49.6% of instructions generated were followed by the clinical caregiver, and 16.8% of instructions generated were explicitly acknowledged by the user through the COTP computer interface. Despite this low caregiver response rate, significant favorable changes in the administration of oxygen were observed. This paper is focused on the issues of general importance the caregiver response rate raises for the implementation and clinical use of computerized decision support tools, including: (1) limitations of the user interface and (2) inherent difficulty in changing long-standing practice patterns.

Computerized management of respiratory care.

Respiratory care as an organized discipline is only about 45 years old, and the management of this dynamic allied health profession has usually been characterized by a demand-for-service mentality. As pressure continues to control costs, those departments that maximize quality patient care cost-effectively with thoroughly documented outcomes are in a better position to compete for future resources. The practice of respiratory care is changing as is the practice of medical care in general. Accountability for resource consumption and the quality of the product delivered are essential elements in the delivery of respiratory modalities. We have developed and implemented a comprehensive patient-data-based approach to the management of respiratory care. The essential elements of this approach are (1) relative-value-unit procedure base; (2) individual, shift, and department productivity that is attached to the annual performance review process; (3) management reporting on a 24-hour basis, with biweekly review at the management level; (4) development and implementation of a comprehensive patient-data-documentation system that permits automatic patient billing and 100% data review for quality-assurance documentation; (5) the development of a medical alerting system that alerts the Medical Director and Respiratory Care staff to potentially harmful events that, if untreated, may result in increased morbidity or mortality; and (6) the development of concurrent and retrospective tools for patient-outcomes research. These functions are supported by an active Medical Informatics Department that is nationally recognized in medical computing and logic application.

Computer-assisted medical direction of respiratory care.

As medical technology and the increased demand for respiratory care make concurrent monitoring of all respiratory care services more difficult, computers are coming to the aid of medical directors and quality assurance committees. The respiratory care staff at LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, has used computers to enhance patient care and quality assurance.

Bilateral otorrhagia associated with continuous positive airway pressure.

A patient had bilateral tympanic membrane rupture and otorrhagia, an unusual complication of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). CPAP, applied by a bag/mask system using disposable spring valves, was used to treat acute pulmonary edema during volume resuscitation and vasopressin therapy for bleeding from esophageal varices.

Positive end-expiratory pressure following coronary artery bypass grafting.

Pulmonary dysfunction commonly follows open heart surgery. To evaluate the effects of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) upon the course and severity of impaired oxygen transfer and roentgenographic evidence of atelectasis after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), we randomly assigned 44 patients to positive pressure ventilation and 0, 5, or 10 cm H2O PEEP. Study groups did not differ with respect to preoperative P(A-a)O2 or time on cardiopulmonary bypass. We observed a significant reduction of P(A-a)O2 during positive pressure ventilation with 10 cm H2O PEEP and FIO2 = 0.6 (182 +/- 6 vs 135 +/- 7 mm Hg, p less than .005). Following extubation, P(A-a)O2 measurements of the three groups did not differ when compared 24, 48, 72, 96, or 120 hours after surgery. Roentgenographic atelectasis scores did not differ on the fifth postoperative day. Five days after CABG, P(A-a)O2 exceeded preoperative P(A-a)O2 (29 +/- 1 vs 18 +/- 1 mm Hg, p less than .001), although the roentgenographic distances from hemidiaphragm to lung apex were unchanged (21.2 +/- 0.9 vs 22.0 +/- 0.9 cm). We conclude that routine PEEP improves pulmonary oxygen transfer but, once discontinued, PEEP offers no sustained beneficial effect upon impaired oxygen transfer or roentgenographic evidence of atelectasis following CABG.

The progress-notes component of the POMR.

The Problem-Oriented Medical Record (POMR) is a five-part patient care documentation system widely used throughout North America. This article concerns the progress-notes component of the POMR and describes techniques for acquiring this information.