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Have you or a family member ever been subject to a late surgery cancellation? Or maybe you’ve been impacted by this as a provider, clinical team member, or scheduler? At best, last-minute surgery cancellations are inconvenient and frustrating for patients. Likewise, they are an incredible challenge for surgeons and their clinical teams who have finite time in the operating room and complex schedules, as well as anesthesia providers, Perioperative Department, and scheduling teams. 

Any number of factors can cause a surgery to be canceled on short notice — one of them is an incomplete preoperative anesthesia evaluation. Preoperative anesthesia evaluations and triage ensure that patients are ready for any surgery or procedure that uses anesthesia, checking for health issues that could put patient safety at risk or make their medication less effective. At the heart of these evaluations is the Pre-Anesthesia Evaluation and Testing Center (PETC). Their work requires close partnership with surgeons and their clinical teams, and often a patient’s primary care provider.  

Enter Procedure Pass — an Epic module that consolidates critical information in one place and allows everyone involved in the surgical process to monitor progress in real-time. Specifically, Procedure Pass will: 

• Improve visibility, communication, and coordination across all stakeholder clinics and teams. This will help most surgery patients be evaluated for anesthesia risk earlier in the process, streamlining their preparation for surgery. 
• Reduce disruptions and short-notice surgery cancellations that often go unfilled — creating the opportunity to complete more surgeries. 
• Leverage automated risk scoring to enable a more targeted approach and less testing of patients who don’t need it. 

“In collaboration with clinic and physician leaders from the anesthesia department and surgical sub-specialties, our review of the preoperative anesthesia evaluation process revealed several opportunities for improvement,” says Lara Walker, Manager, Perioperative Business Operations, UVA Community Health. “While teams are working diligently using tools like spreadsheets and patient lists to manage patient readiness for surgery, there's a strong potential to enhance communication, streamline tracking, and increase transparency. This work reflects our ongoing commitment to improving the experience for patients, team members, and providers." 

Procedure Pass is slated to go live on Tuesday, Sept. 9, and will have an impact across UVA Community Health — touching all procedures performed in the operating rooms, endoscopy suites, procedural rooms in UVA Health Culpeper, Haymarket, and Prince William Medical Centers or UVA Health Surgical Care, part of UVA Health Culpeper Medical Center.  

“Procedure Pass will not only simplify the workflow for team members without sacrificing patient safety, but ultimately lead to better-informed patients before surgery and higher overall patient satisfaction," says Amanda Welch, Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, UVA Health Haymarket Medical Center.  

A robust training program will prepare providers, nurses, clinical support team members, and surgery schedulers to use the new module between now and launch. “No one is happy when a surgery is postponed — not patients, not surgeons, not anesthesia providers,” says John Bennett, MPA, Chief Ambulatory Operations Officer. “Implementing Procedure Pass is a prime example of how we can use technology to improve our processes in ways that reduce team member frustration and burnout while delivering superior patient care. It supports our strategic commitment to strengthen our operational foundation and is a win for everyone.”

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