Look Who it Was Random video

Better Pain Management Making for More Outpatient Surgery

510 views · Published 11 December 2015 · 1:56 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: Lee Health · 2015 · Science & Technology

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“Most facilities have a pre-op area similar to this.” 
But unlike what you’d find in a traditional hospital setting, Lee Memorial Health System’s outpatient surgery center offers no overnight stays and has no emergency room. It’s all surgeries, all day; at the end of which, patients go home.

“Once the anesthesia effects wear off completely they’re able to get up, move around a little bit. They’re not nauseous, they have a family member and they’re escorted home.” 

It’s reflective of a nationwide trend; more people are looking to stand alone surgery centers to undergo their procedures.

“We go anywhere between, on a slow day, maybe eight or nine all the way up to I think we’ve done as many as 30 patients in a day,” says Scott Anderson, who is an OR nurse with Lee Memorial Health System. 
More and more surgeries are being opened up to outpatient centers. That’s due to several factors: first surgeons are using smaller, less invasive techniques to operate. And advances in anesthesia and pain management are allowing patients to safely go home and recover.

“Many of the anesthesiologists that work in outpatient centers are doing more advanced pain management,” says Dennis Sagini, a surgeon on medical staff of Lee Memorial Health System. 
Orthopedic surgeon Dennis Sagini performs many of his upper extremity surgeries here.
“If you were to have a shoulder procedure you might get a pain medicine that covers your pain during your procedure, but then when you wake up you have to be given more pain medicine. Well now what can be done, is the anesthesiologist can put in a numbing block that can last sixteen to 24 hours and that can get you home and get you comfortable. Further, a catheter can be inserted that you go home with and that provides additional pain management for up to about 72 hours,” says Dr. Sagini. 

There’s no place like home as far as many people are concerned. Recovering in a familiar setting may boost healing as well as satisfaction.


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Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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