ASA committee members write on the importance of proper preop patient consultations on KevinMD.com

In the article, George Tewfik, MD, FASA; Monica W. Harbell, MD, FASA; Emily Methangkool, MD; and Stephen Rivoli, DO, members of ASA’s Committee on Patient Safety and Education, discussed how shifting from “clearance” to “evaluation and optimization” of patients can help make sure that preoperative consultations achieve the goal of ensuring safe and timely surgery for patients. “It has become commonplace to hear statements such as: ‘This patient needs clearance’ and ‘This patient has a clearance note’ or ‘We can’t go to the OR without clearance’ on a near daily basis. These statements, while well-intentioned, actually hold very little weight, and tell us next to nothing about what the patient needs, or what workup they have already received,” they wrote.