Improving Perioperative Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Perioperative communication can be ineffective and result in delays or adverse events. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has placed demands on health care leaders and personnel to integrate information quickly and accurately. When caring for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 or whose infection status was unknown, perioperative personnel at one facility discovered communication gaps associated with the environmental cleaning process and hand-over reports. A project team comprising perioperative nurses created five tools to provide critical information to help diverse team members share the same mental model. The project team created one tool in English and Spanish to meet the needs of environmental services personnel whose primary language was Spanish. The team created another tool to support communication with central processing department personnel and facilitate prioritization of case cart cleaning when needed. The development and implementation of the communication tools helped to provide a safe working environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.