New Strategy Aims To Ensure Postoperative Evaluations

From Anesthesia News, October issue by Lynne Peeples

Despite regulatory guidelines that require them, postoperative anesthesia evaluations are often neglected. Ambiguity may arise over which clinician is responsible or patients simply may be hard to track down—either having been discharged without an overnight stay or detained in the physical therapy or radiology departments.

However, a new approach involving an electronic database and a designated resident may help ensure that the potential timesaving, cost-saving and lifesaving evaluations are actually performed. The study is scheduled to be presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists in San Diego (abstract 1307).