A Preventing Post-Surgical Harm Workshop facilitated by Barb DeBaun, MSN, RN, CIC of Cynosure Health and Martha Hayward, PFE, IHI Faculty, was held in Orlando, Florida on June 5, 2019.

The presenters, Barb DeBaun and Martha Hayward, led exercises to showcase the power of teamwork, spotlight on strategies to impact and optimize post-surgical outcomes including best practices, challenges, surgical optimization and patient/family engagement.  The “Wheel of Harm” exercise was used to tie PFE metrics to surgical harm such as delirium, SSI and VTE.  Review of challenges associated with adoption and adaption of change ideas and the value of teamwork.

Surgical harms were “tied” together to demonstrate the power of “Pre-hab” of surgical patients. This is an approach to improve the condition of patients preparing for surgery in order to optimize their outcomes.