Dr Deborah Mervitz

Dr. Mervitz has been a member of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at CHEO since 2009. She completed her anesthesia residency in Edmonton, followed by a fellowship in pediatric anesthesia at CHEO. Shortly after joining CHEO she became the Medical Director of the Acute Pain Service, and subsequently became involved with both in and out-patient pain management for both the acute and chronic pain services. She has been involved with several related quality improvement projects addressing standardization of perioperative care pathways using the Lean improvement methodology. Additional interests include using hospital electronic medical record technology and associated databases to improve the quality and safety of acute pain service infrastructure and service delivery. Today she is going to talk to us about the CHEO experience of creating a Rapid Recovery Pathway for patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis undergoing posterior spinal fusion.