Patient Orientation & Education and It's Role in Patient Safety

1. Patient Orientation: Orientation is a tour of your facility and your hyperbaric suite. During this time, you have the opportunity to meet your new patient and display your chambers. Your patient and their family members get to meet your staff and feel out your facility.
2. Hyperbaric Education: This can be done differently depending on what type of facility you operate. In my practice, if a patient qualifies for hyperbarics, the provider or physician will give the patient an explanation of the benefits of hyperbarics and other treatments to consider. This is done in case the patient does not want to move forward with hyperbarics. Also, the provider makes sure there aren't any contraindications by sending the patient for a chest x-ray and other various tests. This depends on their diagnosis, if needed.

So, what does all of this have to do with safety? Well, during orientation is an excellent time to get a feel for your patient's habits & tendencies. If they have family members with them, they can provide background information, such as telling a story, including ways the patient perceives treatment. Keep note of what those family members say because that could be very useful during their upcoming treatments. Also, sometimes a patient could forget to tell their physician/provider information that could pose a risk during a hyperbaric treatment, so you'll want to take note. 

During the education, you can reiterate safety procedures and give a complete overview of the rules as to what is and isn't allowed in the chambers. Establishing a rapport with the patient will help with any fears or apprehensions. It will also help the patient confide in you if they forget something — this could be vital to the patient's safety. 

The one thing that I think is the hardest thing to talk about during patient education is FIRE safety. It's very easy to tiptoe around this subject, but it needs to be addressed. Coming up with a plan in advance to help your patient trust you and your process would definitely be wise. We are in the tech-savvy age, and if you don't tell the patient about the risk of fire and educate them about the items that can pose a risk, they'll find it on their own. In turn, you could lose the patient's confidence in your process or, worse, lose a patient entirely. I'll personally give the patient a handout and I'll tell them that we've gone over a lot today. I understand that it's normal for the patient to forget some of our conversation from that day, so I give them homework. I task them with reading the handout 24-hours before they come to their first treatment. I provide them with my phone number to reach me. I assure them they can feel free to contact me if there's anything that I can help them with or if they have any questions before their return.

In closing, in hyperbaric safety, it is paramount to have a solid education & orientation procedure in place. Safety is used in every aspect of the patient's hyperbaric journey. Having a solid orientation and education process is beneficial for finding any potential safety risks, and keeping unauthorized materials out of your chambers is vital to a great safety program in any facility.