Increasing the Safety of Patients Undergoing Breast Implant Surgery Using an Electronic Health Record Enhancement

Breast implant surgery is a popular plastic surgery procedure performed worldwide. Despite its global popularity, patients undergoing breast implant surgery are at risk for systemic illness and more than one form of cancer. We conducted a nursing workflow analysis at our facility and determined that it is not standard practice to screen patients for the presence or absence of breast implant devices at every health care encounter. This lack of screening for breast implant devices may adversely affect patient safety by hindering the rapid identification of systemic illness or cancer related to breast implant devices and delaying effective medical intervention. Based on the results of the workflow analysis, we initiated a formal call for nursing action. We identified a nursing workflow process to increase patient safety and developed a universal screening tool for implantable devices. We defined universal screening for implantable devices as assessing all patients for the presence or absence of an implantable device, specifically breast implant devices, at every health care encounter. Implementing a universal process for screening patients for implantable devices at every health care encounter can be easily formulated into a policy and procedure and/or an electronic health record (EHR) update or enhancement. This article discusses how we utilized a workflow process map to translate universal screening for implantable devices into an EHR enhancement.