PURPOSE:This quality improvement project examined whether the use of a validated physiological scoring protocol to determine discharge readiness for surgical procedures proximal to the airway would decrease the time at which discharge criteria were met and postanesthesia care unit (PACU) length of stay. DESIGN:An observational pre-post design compared preimplementation recovery times to postimplementation recovery times. METHODS:PACU nurses were trained to use two physiological scoring protocols to determine when patients met discharge criteria and to document when discharge criteria were met. FINDINGS:During the postimplementation period, there was a significant decrease in the time it took patients to meet PACU discharge criteria when using the physiological scoring protocols compared with the preimplementation group (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS:These results suggest that physiological scoring protocols are safe and appropriate to determine discharge readiness for patients who have surgery proximal to the airway.