Integrating services
In the current political and economic climate all areas of healthcare are facing significant chanllenges to become more dynamic and offer the highest value-for-money. PACUs can also have additional functions if they are of sufficient size. For example, patients may be brought there to holding bays to reduce eard transit times, ensuring theatre lists are used efficiently. It is also possible to place regional anaesthetic block patients in the PACU whilst waiting for the block to fully establish, in the meantime completing a short case in theatre. This allows the recovery area to be useful both pre-and post-theatre, utilizing the precious and traditionally under-utilized hospital space especially at the start of the working day.
During times of exceptional capacity short-stay high-de-pendency unit (HDU) patient may be accommodated in the PACU if resources allow. This should be seen as an emergency measure since these complex patients require intensive nursing and medical care and therefore the appropriate resources need to be put in place to be able to support such abilities. This includes training, staffing and equipment – if this is not done effectively then there will be a significant impact on the theatre throughput and consequently on patient care.
Other hospital services such as preoperative assessment and cardio- pulmonary exercise testing also provide value in preoperative planning and allow risk stratification of patients. This lessens any foreseeable impact on both the patient’s recovery and on the PACU.