Since 2019, Northern Health has been part of an exciting new pre-habilitation project led by the Doctors of BC’s Specialist Services Committee (SSC), in partnership with the Shared Care Committee (SCC), the General Practitioners Services Committee (GPSC), and health authorities.
Fourteen hospitals across the province are participating in the Surgical Patient Optimization Collaborative (SPOC). In Northern Health, there are two pilot sites: Prince Rupert Regional Hospital (PRRH) and the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (UHNBC) in Prince George. The main aim of the project is to help patients optimize their health prior to surgery and to improve health outcomes after surgery.
Background
The teams plan to accomplish this by considering many components of patient optimization, specifically: Glycemic Control, Smoking Cessation, Social Supports, Frailty, Physical Activity, Anemia, Cardiac Disease, Pain, Sleep Apnea, Alcohol/Drug Anxiety, and Nutrition. DVT Prophylaxis was initially a designated optimization component but has been removed. Each site initially focused on a few optimization components. However, UHNBC has since expanded to focus on all components and broadened their target population to include general and orthopedic surgeries from just urology and gynecology surgical patients. PRRH, which initially focused on Social Supports, Anemia, and Sleep Apnea, plans to add Glycemic Control, Smoking Cessation, and Nutrition to their pre-habilitation portfolio in the fall of 2021. They have been screening all elective surgeries including obstetric, gynecologic, general, and orthopedic surgeries requiring anesthesia.
The data collected will be used for the development of a long-term pre-surgical screening optimization program in Northern Health, and will contribute to further quality improvement initiatives in BC’s surgical programs.
Physician Involvement
Your participation is vital to the success of this program and to our collective ability to provide excellent care to surgical patients in our health authority. The Pre-Surgical Optimization Nurse at your site may connect with you or your office via referrals to request your involvement with the medical management of the patients involved in the optimization process. Additionally, members of the SPOC team may be contacting you or your office staff to retrieve information on the surgical patients.
We would greatly appreciate your assistance in this important initiative. Should you wish to obtain further information, please visit: Surgical Patient Optimization Collaborative Website or Pre-surgical Optimization page on OurNH.
Sincerely,
Dr. J. Akhtar – Team Lead, Anesthesiologist, UHNBC
Shelley Movold –Quality Improvement Coach, UHNBC
Nicole Dron – Pre-Surgical Optimization Nurse, UHNBC
Dr. R. McGhee – Family Physician, UHNBC
Dr. F. Mansour – Internist, UHNBC
Dr. M. Odulio – Obstetrician/Gynecologist, UHNBC
Dr. A. Abdulla – Urologist, UHNBC
Lia Clemas – Director Perioperative/High Intervention, Ambulatory Care Administration, UHNBC
Karen Newman – Surgical Clinical Reviewer, National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), UHNBC
Jana O’Neill – Program Service Specialist, Ambulatory Care Administration UHNBC
Kristen Massey – Community Services Manager, Prince George
Carling Lovell – Administrative Support, UHNBC
Stacey Patchett – Lead, Regional Quality Processes
Dr. D. Mackey – Orthopedic Surgeon, UHNBC
If you have any questions, please contact Nicole.Dron@northernhealth.ca