[Anesthesiology consulting unit in perioperative medicine]

There is a demand, caused by increase of one-day surgery, surgery of high risk patients with coexisting diseases, and growing need for patient education, for such improvement of preoperative preparation, which will enable an optimalization in patient care. That became a special task of Preanesthetic Evaluation Clinic. The aim of the paper was to analyze activity of local Preanesthetic Evaluation Clinic in years 1993-2000. Special emphasize was put on: assessment of Clinic functioning, with regard to variety of consultations, perioperative patient education, use of perioperative risk scales, processing of guidelines of laboratory tests in particular groups of patients, assessment of perioperative fear factors. Analyze of consultations was conducted using custom design computer program, operated in the "Clinic since" 1997. Discussing own experiences, a necessity of patient education was emphasized as a significant factor lowering perioperative fear. There was also a presentation of perioperative risk assessment methods as well as guidelines of laboratory tests improving clinical effectiveness. Information for patients, prepared in the Clinic "What should you know about anesthesia" was described. As conclusions perspectives of further development of the Clinic were shown. Growing significance of an anesthetic nurse in perioperative patient preparation was foreseen. A demand for improving electronic patient records as well as use of new technologies was proven.