The Comprehensive Preoperative Clinic will be opening on Oct 2, 2023. Many thanks to all efforts that have contributed to this success. Dr. Bill Hartman, Medical Director for the Preoperative Clinic, has been integral in shepherded this effort for nearly 4 years.
The Clinic will be located on the 3rd floor at East Madison Hospital and will serve all patients in our system of care, except for pediatric patients. A slow scale up to full clinic volume is anticipated and staffing the clinic is already underway with the addition of Anne Barnett, APP to our clinic team. Tours of the clinic space will be available starting in September.
Dr. Hartman and a group of recruited faculty will be primarily staffing the clinic, with support from new APPs, our current PASS Clinic RN’s and our residents. Initially the faculty workflow will include staffing 1-2 ORs at EMH, until the volume of the clinic demands a full-time presence in the clinic.
The goal of the clinic is Preoperative Evaluation for our highest risk patients. The evaluations will occur in person and virtually. Longitudinal outcome data collection and evaluation is also a goal of the clinic and will be a commitment from day one. Dr. Hartman and Dr. McQueen are working with Jeremy Sullivan to design the project(s). The data collected will inform the expansion of the clinic in the future. We anticipate that formal and standard evaluation of patients will improve outcomes, reduce complications and costs.
Our dream for the clinic is that it will grow into an optimization clinic, and eventually expand to include pre-habilitation and ERAS planning. These dreams will require more resources, inclusive of multiple patient visits in the pre-operative window and follow up after surgery and discharge. The clinic’s growth and expansion will build on our early successes. -Kelly McQueen
As always, we stand on the shoulders of giants – those who pioneered the preoperative processes, and the many clinics that have informed the influence of these clinics our specialty for more than 30 years. A specific thanks to Dr. Scott Springman who advocated for a comprehensive preoperative clinic for decades, and to whom we are grateful for the processes we have in place today.