Non-Operating Room Anesthesia (NORA) refers to non-operating room locations distributed across the medical center where anesthetics are delivered. The number of procedures performed in NORA spaces has been increasing steadily over the last decade: it now reaches close to 50% of all anesthetics across our department. All faculty participate in NORA care, in some capacity.
Our mission is to provide excellent clinical care for increasingly complex patients and procedures performed in NORA locations, to collaborate with stakeholders from disciplines such as interventional radiology, cardiology, gastroenterology, pulmonology and other specialties that may require anesthesia services, and to develop quality and safety protocols in the non-operating room environment.
Clinical
NORA includes procedures performed in:
- Interventional Radiology
- Electrophysiology
- Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
- Bronchoscopy
- Catheterization laboratory
- Interventional Neuroradiology
- MRI
- Radiation Oncology
- Burn Unit
- ECT
With the advancement of the Heart Failure program, an increasing number of patients with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), or awaiting heart transplantation, require procedures in NORA locations. We responded by developing protocols for patients with LVAD undergoing GI procedures, bedside procedures in CCU, checklists for emergencies in GI and IR suites and emergency preparedness and mock-codes in GI, IR, EP and MRI.
Education
There is a mandatory two-week NORA rotation for CA-2 anesthesiology residents. During this rotation, and during the rest of their residency, residents spend time in the NORA space so that by graduation they will have the knowledge and experience to deliver safe and efficient care for this patient population.
Faculty deliver lectures pertinent to anesthetic management of patients undergoing procedures in the different locations in the NORA sites throughout residency.
Faculty
Diana Anca, MD
Director of Non-Operating Room Anesthesia
Associate Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology