More than one-third of American adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obese patients are more prone to intra-operative complications than non-obese patients, according to AAAHC.
The toolkit, titled “Ambulatory Surgery and Obesity in Adults: Preventing Complications” can help providers in ambulatory settings decide if surgery on an obese patient should be delayed or performed in a hospital instead, based on a patient’s body mass index and comorbidities.
“It is important for providers to know that while each patient must be evaluated individually, many obese patients can safely undergo surgery in an ambulatory setting,” said Naomi Kuznets, PhD, senior director and general manager of the AAAHC Institute. “This new AAAHC Institute toolkit gives providers easily implementable guidelines for when it is advisable to move forward with ambulatory surgery and when a hospital may be a more appropriate setting.”
Click here to download the toolkit.
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