Perioperative Care

Endoscopy Centers

There are two Endoscopy Centers at the UCSF Medical Center - one at the Parnassus site one at Mount Zion Hospital. The Endoscopy Center at Parnassus serves both outpatients and hospitalized patients of all ages, while the Endoscopy Center at Mount Zion is for adult patients only. Endoscopic procedures may be performed by physicians from Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, or Radiology, and include such procedures as colonoscopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, bronchoscopy, esophago-gastro-duodenoscopy, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube placement, paracentesis, and liver biopsy. Endoscopic ultrasounds are also performed at the Parnassus campus.

The purpose of the Endoscopy Centers is to care for patients in an environment that provides an appropriate level of nursing and medical care supervision. Nursing care in the Endoscopy Centers is provided in accordance with the Society of Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates (SGNA). The two Endoscopy Centers have a close working relationship and all clinical staff rotate between the two units, maintaining the necessary competencies to provide safe care to all patients.

The majority of procedures involve the use of sedation, and Endoscopy nurses must maintain their expertise in patient assessment, critical thinking, and airway management in order to provide quality care for these patients. Endoscopy nurses are actively involved in the quality improvement program, evaluating and improving pain management, patient and family education, patient satisfaction, sedation, and nursing process documentation on an ongoing bases.