Implementation of Standardized Post-anesthesia Care Handoff and Airway Management in Recovery

When a patient arrives at the postoperative anesthesia care unit (PACU), a transfer of care report from the anesthesia provider to the PACU nurse occurs at the bedside. Historically, there has been a lack of completeness in handoff reporting that has led to numerous avoidable medical errors. The goal of this quality improvement project at a 25-bed critical access hospital in rural Indiana was to implement a standardized handoff tool in the PACU. Secondly, an in-service was provided on airway management amongst special populations across the lifespan to improve the quality and safety of patient care in rural communities. A pre-test survey was used to evaluate the anesthesia department and perioperative nurse’s opinions of the current handoff process. A standardized handoff tool was then implemented along with an in-service on airway management of special populations. A post-intervention survey was used to determine if the post-anesthesia tool made handoff a more streamlined process. Unfortunately, due to the lack of participation from participants, results were inconclusive to determine if the standardized handoff tool improved the transition of care process in the recovery room

Creator

• Falasca, Carrie
• Scroggham, Haley

Language

• English

Palavra-chave

• perioperative
• handoff
• post-anesthesia care unit
• communication
• standardized tool
• checklist
• reporting tool

Date created

• 2024

Resource type

• Research Paper

Rights statement

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/