We standardized our pre-procedure call with a one-page checklist (anticoag timing, recent creatinine, contrast allergy plan, NPO/escort) and over 6 weeks saw about 25% fewer same-day delays and shaved 10–12 minutes off room turnover. If you want the template or have a better consent phrase bank for thoracentesis/paracentesis and drain exchanges, I’d love to compare notes to keep patients moving safely and on time.
I’ve had the best mileage from adding a 20-second teach-back in the pre-call — “in your own words, what are we doing and the top two risks?” — which reliably surfaces hidden anticoag doses and missing escorts; our day-of deferrals dropped about 30%. For contrast allergy plans I anchor to the ACR manual (ACR Manual on Contrast Media) but keep a steroid-only fallback for late add-ons — want my exact thora/paracentesis phrasing, @OP?
And we added a bold “last anticoag dose/time” field and an “escort confirmed + phone” checkbox to the one-pager, plus a texted 3-line recap after the call — like putting the keys by the door, it cut our turnbacks the most. Building on @taylorR89, a prompt we use is “In your words, why are we draining fluid and what’s the top risk?”; small caveat: this worked only after schedulers, not nurses, owned the pre-call.