PONV has a significant impact on the patient and on the healthcare facility. Healthcare facilities are seeing increased costs related to PONV due to the resulting complications, unanticipated admission, prolonged nursing care, and delayed PACU or hospital discharge (Kovac, 2013). Not only is PONV a huge patient dissatisfier, there are life-threatening risks associated with this complication including aspiration pneumonia, esophageal rupture, subcutaneous emphysema, and bilateral pneumothoraxes (Hambridge, 2013). In a study completed by Parra-Sanchez et al. (2012), it was determined that the cost of care for patients that experienced PONV was approximately seventy-five dollars more expensive compared to patients who did not experience PONV.
