There is a standard recommendation that no more than 30 minutes should pass between when the medical staff member notes that an obstetrical emergency exists to the first incision of a cesarean section. That sounds doable, right? I mean, how much preparation could it take?
This is what BMJ Group, a company that dispenses medical information, reveals about the process:
- Patient signs informed consent form.
- Technician prepares IV access and starts IV fluids.
- Technician draws blood samples, fills out forms, and takes blood samples to lab.
- Premedication is obtained, prepared, and injected.
- Anesthesiologist, operating room assistant, and attending physician are contacted.
- Scrub nurse scrubs, opens packs and sutures, discontinues monitors, checks IV lines, and removes the fetal monitoring scalp clip.
- Woman is taken to the operating room and placed on the table.
- Anesthetist scrubs, prepares spinal drugs, attaches monitor, administers spinal anesthesia, and waits for it to take effect.
- Resuscitaire infant warmer is checked.
- Medical team inserts a catheter and shaves incision area.
- Surgeon scrubs as team members prepare skin for an incision.
OK, so that’s a lot to do in 30 minutes. This fact makes it even more remarkable that some hospitals have reduced prep time to less than 20 minutes and, in the case of one hospital, 11 minutes. Bravo!
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