Collaborative development of a perioperative thermal care bundle using the guideline implementability appraisal tool

Background: Perioperative hypothermia significantly increases a patient's risk of adverse complications, such as surgical site infection; morbid cardiac events, and surgical bleeding. Although guideline recommendations are relatively simple and inexpensive, they are often not adhered to in clinical practice. Knowledge tools are tangible resources that assist clinicians to provide evidence-based care. Purpose: This article reports the collaborative development of a knowledge tool—a perioperative thermal care bundle. Methods: A multidisciplinary panel of experts used the online GuideLine Implementability Appraisal tool to prioritize and select recommendations for inclusion in the care bundle. Design: Collaborative, iterative design. Finding: Through a consensus process, the expert panel selected three main bundle elements: Assess patient's risk of hypothermia and contraindications to active warming; record temperature frequently preoperatively, intraoperatively, and postoperatively; and actively warm, intraoperatively, if they are at high risk, or anytime they are hypothermic. Conclusions: The GuideLine Implementability Appraisal tool was a simple yet comprehensive tool that enabled the development of a care bundle by expert clinicians.