Utilizing Multimodal Education to Impact Provider Documentation of Post-Anesthesia Evaluation in a Rural Hospital

Background: Hospital policy, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and The Joint Commission (TJC) require a post-anesthesia evaluation to be completed and documented no later than forty-eight hours following surgery or any other procedure requiring anesthesia. This evaluation is required any time general, regional, or monitored anesthesia has been administered to the patient and must be completed by a certified anesthesia provider. One rural hospital facility’s post-anesthesia documentation compliance has declined to 79%, compared to the previous quarter’s report of 95%. Purpose: The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project aimed to improve post-anesthesia documentation through a multimodal educational intervention. Methods: This quality improvement DNP project included a comprehensive multimodal education course presented to the nurse anesthetist using a PowerPoint video, poster presentation, and handout. Results: Twenty-five Certified Registered Nurses participated in the project. All twenty-five participants completed the post-test with a 100% pass rate. The findings of the post-implementation chart audit demonstrated improvement in post-anesthesia documentation with a 17% increase in the compliance score from 79% to 96%. Conclusion: The DNP project improved post-anesthesia documentation through multimodal education interventions and will be continued in the facility as part of annual training