Spine Surgeons Get Updated Postop Order Sets

Spine surgeons at Cedars-Sinai now have access to more user-friendly and standardized postoperative order sets.

The updated order sets, which took effect Oct. 1, will be accessible in CS-Link™ and are primarily for physicians performing lumbar or cervical fusion postoperative procedures.

In January 2012, a committee was formed to streamline spine postoperative order sets. The committee established guidelines for the new order sets in July 2013, followed by approval from several performance improvement committees and the leadership of the Cedars-Sinai Spine Center.

Since a pilot project began, the length of stay of patients whose physicians used the new postoperative order sets dropped from 1.35 days to 1.08 days.

One of the main goals of the new order sets is to reduce variations in practice and to reduce length of stay after spine surgery, namely postoperative procedures for lumbar or cervical fusion, said orthopedic spine surgeon Leonel Hunt, MD, who helped lead the team that developed the order sets.

"Although these order sets aren't entirely new, they are designed in a way that works better in CS-Link and makes it easier for spine surgeons to simply check a box for our most routine orders," Hunt said. "We aim to create uniformity among our spine surgeons, which these new postoperative order sets accomplish."

The new order sets also are easier for the nursing staff to follow, Hunt said.

A multidisciplinary team of nurses, administrators and physicians, headed by Hunt and spine surgeon Alexandre Rasouli, MD, developed the spine postoperative order sets.