Are you scheduled for surgery soon? If so, you might be called up for a pre-anesthetic assessment.
A clinical study has shed some light on the effectiveness of these pre-anesthetic assessment clinics in improving patient safety and outcomes after surgery.
Pre-operative assessment is a crucial step in ensuring patient safety and optimizing outcomes. However, the traditional model of conducting a pre-anesthetic assessment on the day of surgery can lead to last-minute cancellations or delays due to unanticipated medical issues, incomplete investigations, or uncontrolled comorbidities. This is where the pre-anesthetic assessment (PAC) clinic comes in. PAC clinics allow for a more thorough and systematic evaluation of patients before their scheduled procedure.
Clinical Study
The clinical study looked at the impact of pre-anesthetic assessment clinics on the outcomes of patients undergoing surgery.The study was an analysis of 7 previously conducted clinical trials involving 77411 patients. Of these, 9626 patients attended PACs before surgery and were assigned to the intervention group while 15531 patients did not attend PACs and were assigned to the control group.
So, what did the researchers find? According to the clinical study, pre-anesthetic assessment clinics have a significant positive impact on several outcomes for patients undergoing surgery. These outcomes include a reduction in surgery cancellations, reduced length of hospital stay, and improved patient satisfaction with the overall surgical experience.
Out of the seven studies, three studies reported a significant reduction in the length of hospital stay and two studies reported a significant reduction in cancellation of surgery for medical reasons.