Did you read it? Hospitals Sicken Many By Withholding Food and Sleep

A Johns Hopkins surgeon and prominent patient safety researcher is calling on hospitals to reform emergency room, surgical and other medical protocols that sicken up to half of already seriously ill patients -- in some cases severely -- with preventable and potentially dangerous bouts of food and sleep deprivation.

In a commentary published ahead of print Sept. 8 in BMJ Quality & Safety, Martin Makary, M.D., M.P.H., and his co-authors urge the wide adoption of protocols to end the practice of imposing needlessly long fasts on patients preparing for operations and to improve sleep quality in those recovering from such procedures.

"Surgery takes a huge physiologic toll on the body, and forcing sick people, especially the elderly, who are already in a frail state, to fast for eight to 12 hours, or even days, before surgery, only amplifies that stress on the body," Makary says.

In their commentary, the authors describe what they say is a typical case of a 65-year-old woman who develops pneumonia at home and feels too sick to eat or drink much for several days. She then goes to the emergency room, where food is withheld by medical personnel in case she needs certain invasive tests or actual surgery. If needed, surgery might add more days without food and little sleep, owing to continuous monitoring and noise in and outside her hospital room.

The authors point out that when subjected to the same level of sleep deprivation and lack of nutrition, healthy people can develop weakened immune systems, dangerous fatigue and impaired judgment within 24 hours.

"Subject sick or elderly individuals to those same conditions and each next medical intervention becomes more dangerous as their illness takes a turn for the worse," Makary says.

Healing may be delayed, he says, and often such individuals are readmitted after discharged home -- a scenario so common it has been dubbed post-hospital syndrome.

Makary and his colleagues argue that acute malnutrition and sleep deprivation, the latter already endemic in hospitalized patients, have increased as hospitals get busier, and as the population ages. Moreover, Makary and his co-authors say, with medical care now highly specialized, breakdowns in communication among medical staff often adds to delays in definitive care, extending periods of malnutrition and sleeplessness.

Currently, says Makary, most pre-operative patients are told not to eat or drink anything past midnight on the day before a scheduled surgery to prevent stomach contents from entering the lungs and blocking airflow. For patients who operations are scheduled early in the morning, that may not be a serious issue, but surgeries take place all day and are often delayed.

More importantly, Makary and his co-authors note, such limitations are woefully out of date, and they cite research showing that food needs to be curtailed only six to eight hours before surgery and drinks just two hours before. Under a protocol dubbed the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) and already used at The Johns Hopkins Hospital for many, but not all, patients scheduled for surgery are prescribed a carbohydrate-rich sports drink, two hours before the procedure, to mitigate the stress of fasting. The approach also includes limiting the use of intravenous feeding and a faster return to normal feeding.

A recent study led by Johns Hopkins surgeon Elizabeth Wick, M.D., a co-author on the commentary, demonstrated that the ERAS approach can reduce the average length of stay by two days among colorectal patients, among other complications. The average cost of treatment also decreased from nearly $11,000 to $9,000 per patient.

Reducing sleep deprivation, however, may require more dramatic changes in hospital routine, the authors say. Currently, hospitals are noisy, stressful environments, with loud conversations outside the room, phones ringing, repeat overhead pages and shared rooms, the authors write.

While the World Health Organization recommends keeping hospital noise levels below 35 decibels at night and 40 decibels during the day, most hospitals exceed those levels, occasionally by several orders of magnitude, according to a 2012 study described in Intensive and Critical Care Nursing. Adding to sleep problems, many lights remain on, particularly in the emergency department, and lab draws of blood occur at all times of day and night.

Johns Hopkins changed practices so that lab draws now occur only during the day. The hospital has also eliminated overhead paging on clinical units to reduce sleep disturbance, and most patients stay in private rooms.

The authors suggest that hospitals should conduct noise studies and encourage patient feedback on the most disruptive sources of noise. Smaller interventions, such as providing eye masks, gentle music and art in hospital rooms can also encourage relaxation and sleep, the authors write.

"Avoidable starvation and induced sleep deprivation are ubiquitous in health care. It's no surprise that these factors influence patient outcomes," Makary says. "We should view hospitals as healing environments rather than isolated clinical spaces and design patient care accordingly."

What do you think?  Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

6 COMMENTS

  1. The NPO has been a big problem for some of my pt. Specially for those with GI bleed and N/V symptoms. Sometimes, it has been several days without foods before the Dr. Cancel the NPO order. Normally the pt. end up very upset about the fact that he/she couldn’t eat for days. The sleeping deprivation it’s another problem in it own. Some Dr. schedule on necessary medication throughout the night for some pt. and it’s impossible not to wake up the roommate also because you have to explain all of the details of the medication you given to the pt.

  2. This is indeed a problem. I have been in nursing for 32 years, and cared for patients who had actually been NPO since they ate dinner at 6 PM, may have drank juice at 9PM before they went to sleep. If their surgery was scheduled for after 12 PM, the patient was NPO for many hours, was hungry, and not a very happy patient. On my unit, we normally have the pt. on IVF, but that is not “food” as the patient is well aware of. This is an outdated practice which needs to be reviewed for the patient’s well-being.
    As far as the sleep deprivation, that is also a real problem. We now have the “Baby Friendly” Initiative which is being promoted by the World Health Organization, WHO. The United States is not a third world country, as of yet. The newborn remains with the mother the entire time after delivery until discharged home. Hospitals are being encouraged to completely do away with a nursery, so there is no choice for the new mother. As we all know, childbirth is a very strenuous physical process and the labors can last for many hours, then ending in a cesarean section, which is major surgery. Postpartum fatigue, pain is a very real concept.
    Whether a mother delivers vaginally, or via cesarean section, she has worked very hard, is tired, and needs quiet and time to sleep, to recuperate. Both the new mother and the newborn need to be in a safe environment, which includes time for sleep and a quiet environment.
    “Baby Drops” can occur when a tired, sleepy mother, or family member goes to sleep and drops the infant. There needs to be a safe place for the infant to go while the mother gets needed rest. Not all mothers have family members who are available to care for the infant while she sleeps.
    The nurse cannot be in all the rooms at all times to ensure safety. The mother can be instructed to place the infant in the bassinet before she goes to sleep, but that cannot be guaranteed, as most go to sleep holding the infant in the bed. It seems in the last several years, our patient’s needs are secondary to recommendations by health organizations, regulatory agencies, and we as nurses cannot provide the care and safety our patients deserve and need. Patient centered care is no longer a desired concept. Nurses are supposed to be “patient advocates” but that idea is being taken away in our real world of nursing today.

  3. I so agree with this. Pt’s whose surgery is scheduled for 1 PM. after being NPO since midnight are not very happy. Most of the time they eat dinner around 6PM and go to sleep at 9 PM, therefore, they are NPO for a longer period of time. The problem of sleep deprivation is very real. We now have “baby friendly” which is being pushed by the WHO, where the mother has the infant with her the entire time after birth until discharge home. There is no nursery, no safe place where the infant can be cared for while the “tired, exhausted” mother gets some very needed sleep. Not every new mother has a family member who can watch the infant in her room while she gets needed rest. The safety of the new baby and mother are essential. Sleep deprivation is a real problem for all patients.
    Perhaps we need to start focusing on our individual patient’s needs and not strict regulations which come down from multiple organizations and regulatory groups who fail to recognize the individual differences in patient’s wishes and physiological needs. It seems the “one shoe fits every person’s foot” theory is not really accurate, nor is it “patient friendly.”

  4. As a nurse, I consistently get the questions and complaints having to do with noisy overnights, fasting pre-op, lack of post-op pain meds, etc. I’ve tried to calm my family and friends as well as I can, but knowing that NPO after midnight can be revised to 6-8 hours will make everyone much happier. Now if we can just work on the nocturnal disturbances. I’m not sure the floor nurses realize the volume of the alarms if one is trying to sleep. Maybe we should turn the tables?

  5. Several years ago I was hospitalized 5 days for pneumonia. Because I was an employee at the hospital, I was given a room to myself. There was a patient down the hall who was suffering from dementia who cried out all night long. I would get up to go to the bathroom and then tried, tried being the operative word here, to close the door to my room so I could sleep. Every time, someone would come by and open it. As it was, I was having breathing treatments during the night.

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