Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Why Surgical Drain Recording Should Be Done

By Ryan Thompson


Drains are inserted at the site of operation after surgery to provide a conduit for any discharge or air to find its way out. Nevertheless, the recording of the output from these sites is an activity that is taken for granted by many care providers. That is why a lot of patients who have undergone surgical operations end up suffering from other conditions. Therefore, surgical drain recording should be done accordingly.

The primary doctor uses the information on the quality and amount of discharge coming from the site to plan for the care process. In addition, complications which are likely to follow after the procedures can be diagnosed early when the recording system is coordinated well. The location of the conduits can be detected with ease too.

The output should be recorded after every twenty-four hours. The fluid nature should be documented too. It can be seropurulent, serosanguinous or serous. In addition, blood which is drained immediately after the surgical operation should not be a cause for alarm.

The running total, drain type, date and time of the recording should be captured in the notes too. It will be very easy to make comparisons in such a case. Therefore, better decisions can be made in the provision of care. There care provider cannot be excused for not doing this. Remember that the entire operation will be for nothing if the patient is not taken care of thereafter. In addition, the patient will be able to go home quickly. Prolonged stay at the hospital increases the chances of nosocomial infections.

The patient should be kept safe during his or her stay at the health center. The care providers are responsible for the safety of the patient. Failure to record the output compromises their safety. Thus, the patient has the right to take legal actions against the hospital. In this case, everyone who was on duty during that period will be involved. It is not a pleasant experience.

When the patient is very sick, the entire department will be on toes all the through. Resuscitation is not funny and everyone involved will end up fatigued. To note is that the other patients will still have to be attended to despite how tired the health care professionals are. Therefore, they can avoid such stress by following the right protocol.

Because the person filling in the observations will have to inspect the drains, blockages will be noted immediately they occur. In addition, dislodged drains will be detected early enough for corrective measures to be taken. The surgeon might assume that the wound has healed because there is no active drainage only to realize that it was not the case when the patients come back with serious complications. The remedy might involve a subsequent surgery which will traumatize the patient further.

Reading the drains and noting the findings down is not enough. The correct procedure should be followed. The files which are opened during admission come with specific sections for making such recordings. Thus, all the fields should be filled appropriately. The other team members might take long to find the information if it has not been documented in the right section.




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