A Safer, Smarter Pathway to Surgery
ClearStart Protocol™
What if your perioperative process could reduce cancellations, prevent avoidable harm, and transform surgical outcomes—without adding more work to your team’s day?
ClearStart™ isn’t just another training. It’s a clinically structured, evidence-based system that helps healthcare professionals optimise surgical readiness, streamline decision-making, and deliver a better experience for every patient.
Whether you’re an anaesthetist or their practice staff, surgeon or their practice staff, perioperative nurse, pharmacist, allied health professional, or hospital administrators and clinical leads responsible for surgical pathways and patient flow, the ClearStart Protocol gives you the tools, templates, and step-by-step framework to confidently implement best-practice surgical preparation and recovery—right from day one.
ClearStart™ = Clear Decisions. Clear Fluids. Clear Recovery.
The Problem We’re Still Not Solving
Despite years of updates to fasting guidelines and pre-op policies, many patients still arrive in theatre:
These issues don’t just affect the patient—they burn out teams, disrupt operating lists, and erode trust across departments.
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ClearStart™ Changes That
This is not just a course. It’s a clinical framework designed to embed safety, efficiency, and clarity into every step of the surgical journey.
Built on the ClearStart Protocol—a five-phase, evidence-based model for perioperative readiness—you’ll learn how to:
Preventable Mistakes. Avoidable Harm. ClearStart Fixes Both.
What's included in this course?
Phase 1: Preoperative Assessment & Risk Stratification
Identify surgical and patient risk early. Use triage matrices to determine who needs anaesthetic review. Avoid last-minute surprises.
Phase 2: Preoperative Hydration & Fasting Management
Replace outdated fasting with modern, patient-centred approaches. Implement DEX carbohydrate drinks and SipTilSend safely and confidently.
Phase 3: Decision Readiness & Team Review
Ensure all information is synthesised before the patient rolls into theatre. Apply the ClearStart Decision Framework and conduct structured team huddles.
Phase 4: Postoperative Recovery & Medication Resumption
Resume critical medications safely. Manage pain with multimodal strategies and reduce the risk of opioid dependency.
Phase 5: Discharge Confidence & Clinical Handover
Close the loop with structured checklists, recovery guides, and safe, documented transitions to GP and community care.
What You’ll Be Able to Do with ClearStart™
This course goes beyond knowledge—it builds capability. By the end, you won’t just understand the protocol; you’ll be ready to lead its implementation with clarity, confidence, and clinical precision.
Triage with Confidence
Use the Red/Amber/Green system to identify risk early and direct patients to the right level of anaesthetic review—before issues arise.
Hydrate Safely, Not Starve
Implement DEX™ and SipTilSend to reduce fasting harm, improve patient comfort, and modernise hydration protocols.
Decide with Certainty
Apply the ClearStart Decision Framework to bring together risk, meds, fasting, and consent into one clear surgical readiness call.
Get Medications Right
Know exactly what to stop, adjust, or continue—before and after surgery—using current guidelines and structured checklists.
Strengthen Patient Decisions
Lead confident, clear conversations that help patients understand their risks, options, and what to expect post-op.
Close the Loop on Care
Standardise discharge and handover using proven tools that support medication safety, GP follow-up, and recovery success.
What Makes ClearStart™ Different
Other training programs tell you what to do.
ClearStart™ shows you exactly how—with ready-to-use clinical tools, editable templates, and documentation checklists you can plug into your local systems immediately.
You’ll get:
All backed by the latest evidence—and designed to reduce variability, support safer decisions, and align your team with one standard of care.
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The Outcomes You Can Expect
Cut cancellations and delays by getting it right the first time
Reduce harm and variation with standardised triage and medication management
Improve surgical flow with less back-and-forth on the day of surgery
Boost patient confidence and comfort, reducing anxiety and improving adherence
Free up anaesthetic resources by focusing reviews where they’re truly needed
Increase team satisfaction with shared language, smoother handovers, and fewer surprises
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Who It’s For
This course is ideal for:
Meet Your Facilitator: Dr Douglas Fahlbusch
At the heart of the ClearStart Protocol is not just a clinical system—but a deeply personal mission.
Dr Douglas Fahlbusch is an anaesthetist, healthcare innovator, and cancer survivor. His experience on both sides of the hospital bed—as a clinician and as a patient—has shaped a unique and powerful perspective on what healthcare can and should be.
Douglas brings more than just clinical expertise. With formal leadership and management training, he understands the operational and cultural barriers that often prevent good care from becoming great care. And he’s committed to changing that.
For Douglas, improving surgical readiness isn't about compliance—it's about compassion, clarity, and connection.
He designed the ClearStart Protocol not only to streamline preoperative processes, but to create a more humane, patient-centred system that looks after both patients and staff. His work champions a holistic approach to health—mental, physical, and emotional—and focuses on building sustainable systems that deliver safety without burnout.
The result? A protocol that reflects both evidence and empathy. A framework that changes lives on every level.
When you enrol in the ClearStart Protocol Course, you're not just getting tools and templates. You're gaining access to the hard-won wisdom of a leader who believes healthcare can do better—and has built a pathway to help us get there.
Patrick Jones - Course author
When You’re Ready to Say… “Yes, It’s Safe to Proceed.”
By the end of this course, you’ll walk away with a fully integrated protocol that supports safer, smarter surgical decisions—every time.
You’ll know exactly what to look for, what to document, what to escalate—and what to stop before it becomes a problem.
Because surgical safety doesn’t come from experience alone. It comes from clarity, consistency, and confident decision-making.
And ClearStart™ gives you all three.
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Enrol Now. Implement Immediately. Save Lives.
Clinical Modules
Gain access to a structured curriculum covering every phase of the surgical journey—from preoperative risk stratification to postoperative pain and discharge. Each module is clinically grounded, evidence-based, and designed to immediately enhance decision-making across multidisciplinary teams.
Practical Tools
Downloadable templates, triage matrices, medication checklists, fasting protocols, and discharge planning guides—ready to implement in your local workflow. These aren't just resources—they’re plug-and-play solutions built to reduce variation and improve safety.
Real-World Results
Developed by frontline clinicians, the ClearStart Protocol delivers measurable improvements: fewer cancellations, safer discharges, and better patient experiences. This course shows you what works—and how to make it work where you are.
ClearStart™ = Clear Decisions. Clear Fluids. Clear Recovery.
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