Postoperative management

After the procedure has ended and the patient emerged from the anesthetic, the postoperative recovery period begins. In the operating room setting, this is usually in the post anesthesia care unit (PACU). The surgeon and anesthesia provider bring the patient out to the recovery area and transfer care by way of a handoff to the PACU nurse. The surgeon usually hands-off first and the anesthesia provider has a more extensive discussion regarding the patient history and anesthetic course with the nurse and stays until the patient is stable enough for the nurse to manage.

In the non-operating room setting, there are also recovery units but the anesthesia provider may not be used to the workflow regarding procedure-specific questions. Also, the anesthesia provider cannot start the next case until the last case has been successfully handed off to the recovery or ICU nurse. The procedure room may be cleaned and readied before this process is complete, but this is the common work flow of the operating room anesthesia provider. Other models can be employed (such as signing out the patient in the procedure room) that can sometimes increase the efficiency of the workflow, but this is an institutional-specific issue.