Effect of Pre-Anesthesia Education on Rates of Same-Day Cancellations in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

The Anesthesia Department at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, provides services for patients having studies in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) suite. Same-day cancellations of patients scheduled for anesthesia for these procedures is a frequent problem, quantified as a cancellation rate of 18% by data collected by the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) in the Neurosurgery Department in 2013/2014. A quantitative study using an experimental design, specifically a between- group quasi-experimental design, was used to compare the cancellation rates between two groups having anesthesia for an MRI. Group I consists of patients who did not receive pre-anesthesia education, with a known incidence of same-day cancellations, and Group II had pre-anesthesia education. Group II patients were contacted via phone in the week preceding their scheduled MRI. They were given NPO education, as well as any education required according to specific patient conditions that may impact their suitability for general anesthesia. A total of 122 phone calls were made for the purpose of pre-anesthesia patient education and screening. Forty-three of the 122 (35.2%) patients were removed from the anesthesia list prior to their scheduled appointment due to information learned in the pre-anesthesia phone call. Four of the patients receiving education, or 3.3%, did not complete the scan. The research question addressed in this study: will pre-anesthesia education, delivered to patients having an MRI under anesthesia, reduce the common causes of cancellations, resulting in fewer same-day cancellations when compared to the current practice of minimal patient education, is clearly answered in the affirmative. The previously established cancellation rate of 18% was reduced to a cancellation rate of 3.3%, an overall reduction in the same-day cancellation rate of 14.7%.