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Perioperative Services - Pre-Admission to Discharge - Total care management integrates multiple disciplines to achieve optimal patient throughput, reasonable room turnover, just-in-time supply system, accurate data management and patient and staff satisfaction. Elective surgeries generate a good part of hospital and physician revenue. Perioperative Services reduces waste, facilitates patient flow, increases productivity and decreases errors.

The lighting in each area plays a large role in staff and patient comfort and satisfaction.

• Surgical facilities vary in layout, but some or all of the following areas, or zones, are usually included in Perioperative Services:

• Pre-Admission

  All preoperative testing done in this area, usually one or more days before the scheduled surgery.

• Public Area

  All patients are admitted here and wait with their families until the staff is ready to begin the pre-op process - families may wait here until patient goes into recovery, or PACU.

• Preparation and Recovery

  Some facilities have separate pre-op and post-op areas, some use the same area for both.

• Anesthesia, Surgical Induction Area

  pre-surgery anesthesia is administered - some facilities use the pre-op area for this function.

• Surgical Holding Area

  designed for retaining sedated patients on wheeled stretchers prior to OR admittance.

• Operating Rooms

  The OR is the focal point or center of Perioperative Services and unquestionably the main profit center for hospitals and surgery centers. OR lighting is the most important lighting in the facility.

• Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) or Recovery Room

  This room is usually reserved specifically for patients just out of surgery and coming out of anesthesia.

• Post-op

  Some facilities use a step down area for patients who are awake and need to rest for a short period before going home.

Turnover is the key to profitability. As one patient proceeds into surgery, another is waiting in the holding area or pre-op. As another patient moves into PACU, another has moved into the OR for surgery. The surgical facility will increase profitability if 35 people have surgery in one day rather than 20. Different types of surgery require different turnover times; certainly transplant surgeries take far longer than skin cancer excision. There is an optimum point at which a patient can be safely moved to the next stage without disturbing the patient's recovery. The lighting in these areas should be one of the tools the Perioperative team uses to increase patient comfort and staff performance.