“This new interdisciplinary guideline provides us with another meaningful tool for improving geriatric surgical care,” said guideline coauthor Clifford Y. Ko, MD, director of ACS’s National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. “We now have expert recommendations in place for older patients that range from preoperative assessment to perioperative management.”
Highlighted below are three things to know about the new guidelines.
1. The guidelines provide a framework for clinicians and surgeons on the increased risk of postoperative complications and prolonged recovery experienced by patients 65-years-old and older.
2. The ACS Geriatric Surgery Task Force worked with a multidisciplinary panel to develop the guidelines, which target surgeons, anesthesiologists and healthcare professionals who work with elderly patients.
3. The guidelines are organized in three distinct sections — immediate preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative management — and a final section that focuses on managing transition to care following surgery, advance directive position statements and perioperative risk factors for delirium.
Click here to access the guidelines.
More articles on care for elderly patients:
How smart cutlery can help the elderly manage disease
Patient safety tool: Joint Commission’s guide to preventing falls
Patient satisfaction lagging for the very elderly, Press Ganey says
