How 2 phone calls can decrease pediatric surgery cancellations

When nurses at a pediatric ambulatory surgery center started calling parents two times in two weeks leading up to their child's scheduled elective surgery, the ASC saw cancellation rates drop significantly, according to a study published in April edition of AORN Journal.

As part of the Nurse-Patient Preoperative Call Log program, preoperative nurses called the parents of pediatric patients two times during the two weeks prior to scheduled surgery. During the call, they answered questions about the surgery and reviewed health history and preoperative instructions.

After three months, cancellation rates fell from 16.8 percent to 8.8 percent.

According to the study, the second call in the sequence was of utmost importance "because it provided information on two separate time points and gave guardians time to process the information and formulate questions for the second call."

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