PeriOperative PeriOp prepares for Magnet® appraisers site visit, p3.
August 2016
PreOp Unit Telemetry Transporters Checking patients in for surgery on the PreOp Unit is a team effort. The patient meets a lot of new faces on the journey. Every staff member plays an integral part in maintaining patient flow into the operating room in a timely manner. Helping in that effort now are two Telemetry Transporters who work exclusively with the PreOp team to take patients from the PreOp bays to the ORs all day long. “A bad day (in the past) was when we didn’t have Maria [Alvarado] and Reginald [Treadwell] if we were shortstaffed,” said Lisa Spencer, PreOp Unit Secretary. “They are awesome. They are efficient. They make us complete because when they take the patients to the OR, that gives us a chance to give more care and more time to the other patients and our other family members who are waiting.” The addition of two
Reginald Treadwell (in the three photos on top) transports a patient from a PreOp bay to OR room 2, while Maria Alvarado, lower left, and Anthony Rolleand, lower right, prepare PreOp bays for incoming patients.
transporters to the team was born to improve efficiency throughout the day in the OR, according to Nicole Hoke, Nurse Manager of PeriOp Operations. “One of the areas of opportunity was when all of the minimal elements are completed in PreOp, on most occasions it took us greater than 10 minutes to get the patient from PreOp to their designated OR,” Hoke said.With the addition of the dedicated trans-
porters the transport time per patient dropped to six minutes. “We dropped down four minutes,” Hoke said. “It has made it a lot more efficient. The nurses and nursing assistants are able to concentrate on checking a patient in. They don’t have to step out of the bay in mid-interview to take another patient to the OR. Everybody is able to work together as a team and get through the OR
Please See “Transporters“ next page.