Can nurses screen all outpatients? Performance of a nurse based model

Purpose: This paper outlines and evaluates a nurse based model for screenin g outpatients that is utilized in our free standing Surgical Day Care Centr e (SDCC), Methods: For 668 outpatients presenting at our SDCC, the attending anesthes iologist completed a study survey that was designed to identify: completene ss of history; important concerns as judged by the pre-admission nurse; whe ther the patient was seen in the anesthesia preadmission clinic (PAC) for a consultation; if there was a delay in SDCC, the duration and reasons for t he delay; whether in the opinion of the attending anesthesiologist the pati ent should have had an anesthetic consultation; whether the patient was can celed and the reason for cancellation. Results: A nurse based model for screening all outpatients in a university affiliated tertiary hospital day care unit had an accuracy of 81%, specific ity of 86%, sensitivity of 46% and a negative predictive value of 92%. The cancellation rate with this model was 1.4%(8/551)and the case delay rate wa s 3.4%(19/551). The referral rate to anesthesiology staff was 7.5%(117/668) and the referral rate to the PAC for anesthetic consultation was 5.1%(34/6 68). Conclusions: The use of the nurse based model allowed for the efficient use of anesthesia and surgical day care centre resources. The model was better at 'ruling out' patients who do not need to be seen by anesthesiology ahea d of the day of surgery rather than 'ruling in' patients who need to be see n by anesthesiology.