Abstract
During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the study institution recognized the importance of providing preoperative COVID-19 testing and symptom screening to ensure patient safety. A multidisciplinary quality improvement team used Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control methodology to understand the issues, identify solutions, and streamline patient flow. The existing preoperative evaluation (POE) clinic was utilized as a centralized entity to provide COVID-19 testing, symptom screening, and infection prevention education in addition to routine preoperative medical optimization. With the new process, the percentage of patients with COVID-19 testing results returned before surgery increased from 10% to 100%. Of the 593 asymptomatic patients screened by the POE clinic, 2 were found to have positive results. These patients had their surgeries postponed until proper recovery. The study institution has extended this new process to all surgical patients, warranting facility readiness for the resumption of elective surgery.
Highlights
During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the study institution recognized the importance of providing preoperative severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing, symptom screening, exposure history documentation, and infection prevention education to ensure the safety of patients scheduled for essential surgical procedures
For emergent life- or limbthreatening surgeries for which physicians felt that a delay caused by waiting for the SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid (RNA) results would adversely affect the patients’ well-being, all perioperative staff members would proceed with the surgeries as if the patients had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2
The success of the new process is related to the availability of SARSCoV-2 RNA tests
Summary
During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the study institution recognized the importance of providing preoperative severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing, symptom screening, exposure history documentation, and infection prevention education to ensure the safety of patients scheduled for essential surgical procedures. Testing identified COVID-19 patients who would require specific facility setup and perioperative airway management to prevent transmission, minimizing exposure to health care providers.[6]. Symptom screening is another important aspect of risk stratification because there are no specific symptoms to distinguish COVID-19 from other respiratory infections.[7]. Patients who were identified via symptom and exposure screening must be monitored appropriately for patient safety, contact tracing, and spread prevention
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