Teamwork gains honors for surgery process
St. Elizabeth surgical staff is garnering national attention because of a process that drastically reduces surgeon down time and improves operating room efficiency thus improving patient safety.
It’s called a “Rapid Sequence Surgical Case Turnover and Staging Program,” and is the collaborative effort of the surgical team, Tehama County orthopedic surgeon Dr. Thomas Coon, and others.
By orchestrating a precise timetable between the two dedicated orthopedic surgical suites, eight procedures can be completed per day rather than the three typically accomplished in traditional surgery centers.
In addition, the St. Elizabeth Perioperative Services team was honored in 2007 by ADVANCE for Nurses Journal for Best in Teamwork and the ADVANCE Best Nursing Team contest, largely because of an innovative total joint surgery flow process, which has increased the number of daily procedures and decreased the amount of surgeon waiting time and improved patient outcomes.
