How Lengthy Wait Time for an OR Slot Impacts Patients With Kidney Stones
For a condition as excruciatingly painful as acute renal colic, the last thing a health practitioner wants is to keep the patient waiting. Yet, lengthy wait time is a common hurdle faced by most patients with renal colic seeking emergency healthcare.
Busy operating room schedules and the multi-faceted nature of ureteral stenting under general anesthesia are quite demanding in terms of time and resources. For a patient already suffering from intense pain, this delay can mean more anxiety, stress, and frustration.
In this blog, we discuss the impact of lengthy wait times on kidney stone patients and a care pathway that doesn’t rely on operating room (OR) slots to provide immediate pain relief.
The True Cost of Lengthy Wait Time
Prolonged Pain
Ask anyone who has suffered an acute renal colic attack just how painful it is. It’s marked by a sudden onset of severe flank pain triggered by a stone stuck in the patient’s ureter. From the flank, the pain spreads down to the groin or testicles. What’s worse, it is often accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Now, imagine asking an emergency department (ED) patient in the grips of such intense pain to wait for an OR slot. However, the sad reality is that in most hospitals, operating room caseloads end up delaying surgical intervention for urgent urological diseases.
Strain on Limited Resources
The current workflow for a kidney stone patient visiting the ED involves admitting them to the hospital, putting them on an OR waitlist, and fasting for at least six hours. The OR schedule is typically managed by a triage system. If the patient doesn’t show signs of an infection, the procedure might be postponed to attend to more critical cases. In that case, the patient is kept on a fasting, eating, and waiting cycle till a slot opens up.
An OR-based stent placement requires coordination of multidisciplinary staff - urologist, anaesthetist, anaesthetic nurse, radiographer, etc. - which creates a significant time and cost burden on the patient and the healthcare system.
Risk of Complications
In addition to limited OR availability, the requirement of general anesthesia for stent placement can result in longer wait times. In contrast to local anesthesia, general anesthesia requires significant preparations, staff, and resources. Patients with renal colic with refractory pain, fever, or pyuria need immediate relief through a ureteral stent or nephrostomy tube place.
A delayed surgical intervention can increase complications while making the patients more anxious and stressed. The reliance on general anesthesia isn’t without risks either, especially in the case of obese, elderly, or patients with cardiovascular comorbidities.
Having to Take More Time Off Work
Ureteral stent placement is a fairly simple and quick procedure that can be over in a matter of minutes. However, OR caseloads can result in pain-stricken patients enduring a wait time that spans several days. Even when their turn finally arrives, preparation, administration, and recovery related to general anesthesia increase the total hospital time.
Local anesthesia, on the other hand, speeds up the procedure. The patient’s recovery time is much faster, and the need for bladder catheters is reduced. In other words, patients can avoid overnight hospital stays and go back to work faster.
A Faster, Less Invasive Solution to Ureteral Stenting
In busy, high-volume hospitals, several specialties compete for OR slots and resources. A study demonstrated a threefold reduction in total hospital time when stent placement is done in an outpatient setting under local anesthesia vs. performed in the OR with general anesthesia.
Kidney stone disease is a common urological disease with prevalence rates of 5% to 15%. In the United States, evidence suggests that about 1 in 11 adults will be affected by his disease at some point in their life. A condition as prevalent and painful as this warrants a simpler, quicker, and minimally invasive care pathway.
By enabling urologists to perform stenting in an office setting, JiffyStent can help free operating room time, save costs, and minimise the risks of general anesthesia for patients affected by kidney stone pain.
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