Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T19:51:36.198Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Effect of Dissemination of Recommendations on Use: Preoperative Routines in Sweden, 1989—1991

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2009

Bengt Brorsson
Affiliation:
Uppsala University Hospital
Svante Arvidsson
Affiliation:
East Hospital, Gothenburg

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to monitor changes in preoperative routines following recommendations given in 1989 by the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment and by the Swedish Consensus Conference on Preoperative Routines, both suggesting a more individualized utilization of preoperative testing. This was a multicenter, prospective, repetitive study conducted at seven Swedish hospitals providing surgical care. The subjects included all patients presenting at the operating theaters for surgical interventions requiring general or regional anesthesia. The main outcome measures were the frequency of reports of performed preoperative ECG, chest x-ray, and analysis of serum concentration of potassium. Before general recommendations were issued in 1989, 47% of the patients had had a preoperative ECG, 26% had had a chest x-ray, and in 61% serum potassium concentration had been measured. In 1991 these frequencies had been reduced by 5,6, and 9 percentage points, respectively (all figures given standardized for age and sex). Large differences were found between indidividual hospitals. Although recommendations suggesting a more restrictive and individualized utilization of preoperative testing have sparked important revisions in Swedish hospitals, there seems to be substantial potential remaining for further reduction of perfunctory use of preoperative screening.

Type
Special Section: The Use And Abuse Of Low-Cost Technologies
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.The Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU). Preoperative routines. Stockholm: SBU, 1989.Google Scholar
2.The Swedish Medical Research Council and the Swedish Planning and Rationalization Institute of the Health and Social Services (Spri). Preoperative assessment: Consensus statement. Stockholm: Spri, 1989.Google Scholar