Weather Advisory

Snow is expected on Monday, Jan. 26. Boston Medical Center will remain open with normal hours. Please contact your clinic if you need to reschedule your appointment. Our phone lines will be open starting at 6:30 a.m. on Monday.

ERAS: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery


ICOUGH:  Preventing Complications After Your Operation

The acronym ICOUGH reminds patients, families, and staff about important steps to avoid developing respiratory or other complications for surgical patients such as pneumonia, blood clots, and other lung problems. Performing all of these practices may contribute to a successful recovery.

ICOUGHSM Stands for

  • Incentive spirometer
  • Cough and deep breath
  • Oral care
  • Understand
  • Get out of bed
  • Head of bed elevated

Video

You can select Closed Captioning, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Vietnamese versions using the video playlist icon at the top-left corner above. You can also download the video by right-clicking on this link and selecting "Save As".

Preventing Venous Thromboembolism After Surgery