Anesthesia awareness during surgery has drawn increased attention from the media and an alert from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). According to recent research, a disturbing number of patients are experiencing anesthesia awareness that may develop into post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Positive Patient Surgery Experiences The Freeman Preparation Program©TM provides your hospital with the tools it needs to deal with this issue. Though awareness cannot be totally eliminated, the program prepares patients for the possibility of the phenomenon and teaches them what to do should it occur. By providing this program, your hospital can meet JCAHO recommendations and:

• Identify psychological factors that put certain patients at risk of awareness.
• Provide informed consent.
• Reduce the potential for post-traumatic stress syndrome.
• Improve patient confidence.
• Provide a referral service for patients who have experienced awareness.

Staff Training and Postoperative Protocol Clinical staff will receive training on how to best help anesthesia awareness patients before, during, and after surgery.

Minimize liability exposure due to awareness during surgery. By identifying high-risk patients, teaching preoperative techniques to patients, educating staff, and providing optimal postoperative protocol, the hospital will minimize its exposure to liability.

Reduced costs resulting from decreased amounts of anesthesia and pain medication.

A number of scientifically controlled research studies* support the idea that faster and gentler induction into anesthesia provides:

• Reduced amount of anesthesia.
• Reduced amount of pain medication.
• Faster recovery room dismissal.
• Better long-term wound healing.
• Shorter hospital stay.

Increased patient satisfaction from program participants. Patients who participated in the Freeman Preparation Program© rated their quality of hospital care as "excellent," significantly higher than people who did not participate in the program. Ease surgery staff workload. An hour before surgery, patients with this training had considerably more confidence in their surgery staff and had significantly faster and smoother induction into anesthesia.

*Research references available upon request.