Abstract 18: The Impact of an Ambulation Orderly Program on Hospital Outcomes for Patients with Recent Open Heart Surgery

Introduction: The detriments of prolonged bedrest are well described, yet most hospitals fail to provide enough ambulation to their patients to prevent significant deconditioning and patient harm. One potential strategy for overcoming this problem is the use of an ambulation orderly (AO), an employee whose primary responsibility is to walk patients up to 3-4 times per day. In May 2013, our hospital instituted an AO program among post-operative cardiac surgical patients. We hypothesized that the introduction of an AO program would be associated with improved patient outcomes. Methods: We evaluated all patients undergoing either coronary artery bypass and/or cardiac valve surgery between September 2012 and March 2014. We evaluated the impact of the AO program on post-operative length of stay (LOS), hospital complications, discharge disposition, and 30-day hospital readmission with both a pre-post study design and an interrupted time-series analysis. Results: We identified 925 patients (68.3 years, 68% male,...