Reporting of Perioperative Adverse Events by Pediatric Anesthesiologists at a Tertiary Children's Hospital: Targeted Interventions to Increase the Rate of Reporting

Perceptions of U.S. and U.K. Incident Reporting Systems: A Scoping Review

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study is to evaluate the extent, range, and nature of the literature that concerns healthcare providers' perceptions following the use of incident reporting systems (IRSs) in the United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom (U.K.). Literature was compared describing providers' perceptions of reporting patient safety incidents using IRSs from healthcare systems built on public, private, for-profit, or nonprofit insurers in the U.S., with providers' perceptions using an IRS within a universal government supported healthcare system in the U.K.

METHODS

This scoping review searched literature from 4 electronic databases, producing 4863 articles between January 2010 to March 2023.

RESULTS

Eleven U.S. and 8 U.K. articles met the inclusion criteria. Providers described system and individual barriers when using IRSs. The U.S. providers described more concerns regarding individual barriers (fear of punitive response or retaliation, feel incapable or shamed, unsure of what constitutes a patient safety incident, and concerned about litigation) than providers in the U.K. Both countries had similar responses regarding system barriers, except for U.K. providers who were more concerned than the U.S. about damage to professional culture. Providers in both countries believed incident reporting was ineffective and time consuming with hospital leaders seldom acknowledging or integrating improvement measures based on reported incidents.

CONCLUSIONS

Sustainable improvements in patient care must be driven by hospital leadership who create just cultures where reporting of safety concerns is encouraged and respected within nonpunitive milieus.

Mixed methods evaluation of a specialty-specific system to promote physician engagement in safety and quality reporting in a large academic health system

BACKGROUND

Incident reporting systems (IRS) can improve care quality and patient safety, yet their impact is limited by clinician engagement. Our objective was to assess barriers to reporting in a hospital-wide IRS and use data to inform ongoing improvement of a specialty-specific IRS embedded in the electronic health record targeting anaesthesiologists.

METHODS

This quality improvement (QI) evaluation used mixed methods, including qualitative interviews, faculty surveys and user data from the specialty-specific IRS. We conducted 24 semi-structured interviews from January to May 2023 in a large academic health system in Northern California. Participants included adult and paediatric anaesthesiologists, operating room nurses, surgeons and QI operators, recruited through convenience and snowball sampling. We identified key themes and factors influencing engagement, which were classified using the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety framework. We surveyed hospital anaesthesiologists in January and May 2023, and characterised the quantity and type of reports submitted to the new system.

RESULTS

Participants shared organisation and technology-related barriers to engagement in traditional system-wide IRSs, many of which the specialty-specific IRS addressed-specifically those related to technological access to the system. Barriers related to building psychological safety for those who report remain. Survey results showed that most barriers to reporting improved following the specialty-specific IRS launch, but limited time remained an ongoing barrier (25 respondents out of 44, 56.8%). A total of 964 reports with quality/safety concerns were submitted over the first 8 months of implementation; 47-76 unique anaesthesiologists engaged per month. The top safety quality categories of concern were equipment and technology (25.9%), clinical complications (25.3%) and communication and scheduling (19.9%).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that a specialty-specific IRS can facilitate increased physician engagement in quality and safety reporting and complement existing system-wide IRSs.

Educational interventions in pharmacovigilance to improve the knowledge, attitude and the report of adverse drug reactions in healthcare professionals: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES

Underreporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) limits and delays the detection of signs. The aim of this systematic review with meta-analyses was to synthesize the evidence of educational interventions (EIs) efficacy in health professionals to increase ADR reporting, attitudes, and knowledge of pharmacovigilance.

EVIDENCE ACQUISITION

A systematic literature review was carried out to identify randomized clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of EI in pharmacovigilance in health professionals to improve ADR reports, knowledge, and attitude toward pharmacovigilance. ADR reports were pooled by calculating Odds Ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (95%CI), while pharmacovigilance knowledge and attitude were pooled by calculating a mean difference (MD) with 95%CI. In addition, the subanalysis was performed by EI type. Meta-analysis was performed with RevMan 5.4 software. PROSPERO registry CRD42021254270.

RESULTS

Eight hundred seventy-five articles were identified as potentially relevant, and 11 were included in the systematic review. Metanalysis showed that EI increased ADR reporting in comparison with control group (OR = 4.74, [95%CI, 2.46 to 9.12], I2 = 93%, 5 studies). In subgroup analysis, the workshops (OR = 6.26, [95%CI, 4.03 to 9.73], I2 = 57%, 3 studies) increased ADR reporting more than telephone-based interventions (OR = 2.59, [95%CI, 0.77 to 8.73], I2 = 29%, 2 studies) or combined interventions (OR = 5.14, [95%CI, 0.97 to 27.26], I2 = 93%, 3 studies). No difference was observed in pharmacovigilance knowledge. However, the subanalysis revealed that workshops increase pharmacovigilance knowledge (SMD = 1.85 [95%CI, 1.44 to 2.27], 1 study). Only one study evaluated ADR reporting attitude among participants and showed a positive effect after the intervention.

CONCLUSION

EI improves ADR reports and increases pharmacovigilance knowledge. Workshops are the most effective EI to increase ADR reporting.

A systematic review on safety and surgical and anesthetic risks of elective abdominal laparoscopic surgery in infants to guide laparoscopic ovarian tissue harvest for fertility preservation for infants facing gonadotoxic treatment

Background

Infertility is an important late effect of childhood cancer treatment. Ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) is established as a safe procedure to preserve gonadal tissue in (pre)pubertal girls with cancer at high risk for infertility. However, it is unclear whether elective laparoscopic OTC can also be performed safely in infants <1 year with cancer. This systematic review aims to evaluate the reported risks in infants undergoing elective laparoscopy regarding mortality, and/or critical events (including resuscitation, circulatory, respiratory, neurotoxic, other) during and shortly after surgery.

Methods

This systematic review followed the Preferred reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) reporting guideline. A systematic literature search in the databases Pubmed and EMbase was performed and updated on February 15th, 2023. Search terms included 'infants', 'intubation', 'laparoscopy', 'mortality', 'critical events', 'comorbidities' and their synonyms. Papers published in English since 2000 and describing at least 50 patients under the age of 1 year undergoing laparoscopic surgery were included. Articles were excluded when the majority of patients had congenital abnormalities. Quality of the studies was assessed using the QUIPS risk of bias tool.

Results

The Pubmed and Embase databases yielded a total of 12,401 unique articles, which after screening on title and abstract resulted in 471 articles to be selected for full text screening. Ten articles met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review, which included 1778 infants <1 years undergoing elective laparoscopic surgery. Mortality occurred once (death not surgery-related), resuscitation in none and critical events in 53/1778 of the procedures.

Conclusion

The results from this review illustrate that morbidity and mortality in infants without extensive comorbidities during and just after elective laparoscopic procedures seem limited, indicating that the advantages of performing elective laparoscopic OTC for infants with cancer at high risk of gonadal damage may outweigh the anesthetic and surgical risks of laparoscopic surgery in this age group.

Implementation and evaluation of an event reporting system in an academic anaesthesia department

BACKGROUND

Reporting adverse clinical events is essential to a culture of safety in healthcare. However, self-reporting such events is generally not widely prevalent in a typical academic anaesthesia department.

METHODS

We set out to create a self-reporting tool to securely accept data from multiple anaesthesia service locations, including data linked to our electronic anaesthesia record, and combine them into an accessible database.We created a web-based database module for incident reporting integrated into the department's intranet. The system was also designed to actively prompt anaesthesia providers for reports following each day of clinical work.

RESULTS

478 events were recorded in the database in the first year of implementation. There were 33 347 anaesthesia encounters in that period, translating to a reporting rate of 1.43% (95% CI 1.31% to 1.57%). In the second year, which coincided with the second phase of implementation, 608 events were reported out of 45 985 anaesthesia encounters, for a reporting rate of 1.32% (95% CI 1.22% to 1.43%). Approximately 40% of events entered into the database occurred in a non-operating room location. The annual reporting rates for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 were 1.26% (95% CI 1.16% to 1.37%), 1.15% (95% CI 1.05% to 1.25%), 1% (95% CI 0.9% to 1.1%), 0.6% (95% CI 0.53% to 0.68%), 0.5% (95% CI 0.44% to 0.57%), 0.4% (95% CI 0.3% to 0.5%), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Our incident reporting system facilitated reporting of events within and outside the operating room. The system captured event data valid for quality improvement within the anaesthesia department.

Neuroanesthesiology Quality Improvement Reporting Patterns: A Tertiary Medical Center Experience

BACKGROUND

Understanding quality improvement (QI) reporting patterns is important for practice-based improvement and for prioritizing QI initiatives. The aim of this project was to identify major domains of neuroanesthesiology QI reports at a single academic institution with 2 hospital-based practice sites.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed institutional QI databases to identify reports from neuroanesthesia cases between 2013 and 2021. Each report was categorized into one of the 16 primary predefined QI domains; the QI report domains were ranked by frequency. Descriptive statistics are used to present the analysis.

RESULTS

Seven hundred three QI reports (3.2% of all cases) were submitted for the 22,248 neurosurgical and neuroradiology procedures during the study period. Most of the QI reports across the institution were in the domain of communication/documentation (28.4%). Both hospitals shared the same 6 top QI report domains, although the relative frequency of each domain differed between the 2 hospitals. Drug error was the top QI report domain at one hospital, representing 19.3% of that site's neuroanesthesia QI reports. Communication/documentation was the top domain at the other hospital, representing 34.7% of that site's reports. The other 4 shared top domains were equipment/device failure, oropharyngeal injury, skin injury, and vascular catheter dislodgement.

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of neuroanesthesiology QI reports fell into 6 domains: drug error, communication/documentation, equipment/device failure, oropharyngeal injury, skin injury, and vascular catheter dislodgement. Similar analyses from other centers can guide generalizability and potential utility of using QI reporting domains to inform the development of neuroanesthesiology quality measures and reporting frameworks.

Associations between safety outcomes and communication practices among pediatric nurses in the United States

PURPOSE

To gain a deeper understanding of RNs communication related to patient safety.

RESEARCH AIMS

To determine: (1) the associations between the communication of registered nurses (RNs) within their health care teams and the frequency that they reported safety events; (2) the associations between RNs' communication within their health care teams and their perceptions of safety within the hospital unit; and (3) whether RNs' communication had improved from 2016 to 2018.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODS

We used the United Kingdom's Safety Culture model as the theoretical framework for this study. Our secondary data analysis from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture included 2016 (n = 5298) and 2018 (n = 3476) using multiple regression models to determine associations between responses for Communication Openness and Feedback & Communication About Error, and outcome responses for Frequency of Events Reported and Overall Perceptions of Safety.

RESULTS

Our findings were: 1). In both 2016 and 2018 datasets, Feedback About Error had a greater impact on Reporting Frequency than Open Communication; 2). Feedback About Error had a greater impact on Safety Perceptions than Open Communication; 3). Open Communication and Feedback About Error and their associations with Reporting Frequency and Safety Perceptions showed little change; and, 4). The proportion of variance was low, indicating factors other than Open Communication and Feedback About Error were involved with Reporting Frequency and Safety Perceptions.

CONCLUSION

Pediatric RNs' communication, reporting, and perceptions of patient safety have not improved. (245 words).

Hospital Adverse Event Reporting Systems: A Systematic Scoping Review of Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence

INTRODUCTION

Reducing the incidence of reportable events with undesirable effects (REUE) is a priority in the hospital environment, which is why reporting systems have been implemented to identify and manage them. Information is required regarding the performance of reporting systems, barriers, or facilitators for reporting and strategies that improve passive reporting.

METHODOLOGY

Systematic scoping review of the literature that included studies performed in the population exposed to the occurrence of REUE in the health system (teams, patients, and family). A search was performed in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Epistemonikos, MEDLINE (PubMed), MEDLINE In-Process and MEDLINE Daily Update, EMBASE, LILACS, and databases of the World Health Organization and Pan-American Health Organization.

RESULTS

Fifteen studies were found, 1 systematic review, 2 clinical trials, 8 observational studies, 3 qualitative studies, and 1 mixed study. In 4 of them, the effectiveness of active versus passive reporting systems was compared. The measures to improve the passive systems were education about REUE, simplification of the reporting format, activities focused on increasing the motivation for self-report, adoption of self-report as an obligatory institutional policy, and using specific report formats for each service.

CONCLUSIONS

There is information that allows to find differences between the performance of the active and passive reporting systems. The reviewed research articles found that passive techniques significantly underreported adverse events. It is recommended that institutions adopt both active and passive techniques in adverse event surveillance. New studies should be directed to answer the comparative efficiency of the reporting systems.

Perianesthetic neurological adverse events in children: A review of the Wake-Up Safe Database

BACKGROUND

Perianesthetic neurological adverse events are rare in children and have been studied in detail in the settings of cardiac surgery and regional anesthesia. Our study aims to characterize perianesthetic neurological adverse events in children in the setting of all types of surgery and diagnostic or interventional procedures, to evaluate anesthesia's role, and to identify factors amenable to prevention.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective study by reviewing all the anesthetic encounters reported in the Wake-Up Safe database between January 2010 and December 2017.

RESULTS

The rate of perianesthetic neurological adverse events was 0.49 per 10 000 pediatric anesthetic encounters. The odds of NAE were significantly higher in children who were older than 6 months; had American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status (ASA PS) of 3, 4, or 5; or had American Society of Anesthesiologists Emergency (ASA E) status. Seizures were the most common NAE. Overall, 23 (18.1%) children with neurological adverse events died, and 33 (26%) experienced permanent or severe permanent harm. The risk of death was higher in infants and in children with ASA PS of 3, 4, or 5; ASA E status; preexisting neurological abnormality; or preexisting neurological deficit and in events associated with cardiac arrest or trauma. Anesthesia contributed to 24 (18.9%) events; patient disease was the primary causative factor in 95 (74.8%) adverse events, and 37 (29.1%) events were preventable, including 2 deaths. Preventable factors broadly included inadequate preoptimization, complications during airway management and central venous catheter placement, and suboptimal patient positioning.

CONCLUSION

Perianesthetic neurological adverse events are rare in children and have a poor outcome. Our study has described pediatric perianesthetic neurological injury in detail and identified contributing factors that can be optimized during various phases of perianesthetic care. This information can be utilized during the informed consent process and to enhance the quality of care in children receiving anesthesia.

A novel approach for exposing and sharing clinical data: the Translator Integrated Clinical and Environmental Exposures Service

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to develop a novel, regulatory-compliant approach for openly exposing integrated clinical and environmental exposures data: the Integrated Clinical and Environmental Exposures Service (ICEES).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The driving clinical use case for research and development of ICEES was asthma, which is a common disease influenced by hundreds of genes and a plethora of environmental exposures, including exposures to airborne pollutants. We developed a pipeline for integrating clinical data on patients with asthma-like conditions with data on environmental exposures derived from multiple public data sources. The data were integrated at the patient and visit level and used to create de-identified, binned, "integrated feature tables," which were then placed behind an OpenAPI.

RESULTS

Our preliminary evaluation results demonstrate a relationship between exposure to high levels of particulate matter ≤2.5 µm in diameter (PM2.5) and the frequency of emergency department or inpatient visits for respiratory issues. For example, 16.73% of patients with average daily exposure to PM2.5 >9.62 µg/m3 experienced 2 or more emergency department or inpatient visits for respiratory issues in year 2010 compared with 7.93% of patients with lower exposures (n = 23 093).

DISCUSSION

The results validated our overall approach for openly exposing and sharing integrated clinical and environmental exposures data. We plan to iteratively refine and expand ICEES by including additional years of data, feature variables, and disease cohorts.

CONCLUSIONS

We believe that ICEES will serve as a regulatory-compliant model and approach for promoting open access to and sharing of integrated clinical and environmental exposures data.

Best practice & research clinical anesthesiology: Safety and quality in perioperative anesthesia care. Update on safety in pediatric anesthesia

Pediatric anesthesia is large part of anesthesia clinical practice. Children, parents and anesthesiologists fear anesthesia because of the risk of acute morbidity and mortality. Modern anesthesia in otherwise healthy children above 1 year of age in developed countries has become very safe due to recent advance in pharmacology, intensive education, and training as well as centralization of care. In contrast, anesthesia in these children in low-income countries is associated with a high risk of mortality due to lack of basic resources and adequate training of health care providers. Anesthesia for neonates and toddlers is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Anesthesia-related (near) critical incidents occur in 5% of anesthetic procedures and are largely dependent on the skills and up-to-date knowledge of the whole perioperative team in the specific needs for children. An investment in continuous medical education of the perioperative staff is required and international standard operating protocols for common procedures and critical situations should be defined.

Comprehensive Risk Assessment of Morbidity in Pediatric Patients Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery: An Institutional Experience

BACKGROUND

Utilizing the intrinsic surgical risk (ISR) and the patient's chronic and acute conditions, this study aims to develop and validate a comprehensive predictive model of perioperative morbidity in children undergoing noncardiac surgery.

METHODS

Following institutional review board (IRB) approval at a tertiary care children's hospital, data for all noncardiac surgical encounters for a derivation dataset from July 2017 to December 2018 including 16,724 cases and for a validation dataset from January 2019 to December 2019 including 9043 cases were collected retrospectively. The primary outcome was a composite morbidity score defined by unplanned transfer to an intensive care unit (ICU), acute respiratory failure requiring intubation, postoperative need for noninvasive or invasive positive pressure ventilation, or cardiac arrest. Internal model validation was performed using 1000 bootstrap resamples, and external validation was performed using the 2019 validation cohort.

RESULTS

A total of 1519 surgical cases (9.1%) experienced the defined composite morbidity. Using multivariable logistic regression, the Risk Assessment of Morbidity in Pediatric Surgery (RAMPS) score was developed with very good predictive ability in the derivation cohort (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.805; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.795-0.816), very good internal validity using 1000 bootstrap resamples (bias-corrected Nagelkerke R = 0.21 and Brier score = 0.07), and good external validity (AUC = 0.783; 95% CI, 0.770-0.797). The included variables are age <5 years, critically ill, chronic condition indicator (CCI) ≥3, significant CCI ≥2, and ISR quartile ≥3. The RAMPS score ranges from 0 to 10, with the risk of composite morbidity ranging from 1.8% to 42.7%.

CONCLUSIONS

The RAMPS score provides the ability to identify a high-risk cohort of pediatric patients using a 5-component tool, and it demonstrated good internal and external validity and generalizability. It also provides an opportunity to improve perioperative planning with the intent of improving both individual-patient outcomes and the appropriate allocation of health care resources.

Complications Associated With the Anesthesia Transport of Pediatric Patients: An Analysis of the Wake Up Safe Database

BACKGROUND

Transporting patients under anesthesia care incurs numerous potential risks, especially for those with critical illness. The purpose of this study is to identify and report all pediatric anesthesia transport-associated adverse events from a preexisting database of perioperative adverse events.

METHODS

An extract of the Wake Up Safe database was obtained on December 14, 2017, and screened for anesthesia transport-associated complications. This was defined as events occurring during or immediately after transport or movement of a pediatric patient during or in proximity to their care by anesthesiologists, including repositioning and transfer to recovery or an inpatient unit, if the cause was noted to be associated with anesthesia or handover. Events were excluded if the narrative clearly states that an event was ongoing and not impacted by anesthesia transport, such as a patient who develops cardiac arrest that then requires emergent transfer to the operating room. The search methodology included specific existing data elements that indicate transport of the patient, handover or intensive care status preoperatively as well as a free-text search of the narrative for fragments of words indicating movement. Screened events were reviewed by 3 anesthesiologists for inclusion, and all data elements were extracted for analysis.

RESULTS

Of 2971 events in the database extract, 63.8% met screening criteria and 5.0% (148 events) were related to transport. Events were primarily respiratory in nature. Nearly 40% of all reported events occurred in infants age ≤6 months. A total of 59.7% of events were at least somewhat preventable and 36.4% were associated with patient harm, usually temporary. Of the 86 reported cardiac arrests, 50 (58.1%) had respiratory causes, of which 74% related to anesthesia or perioperative team factors. Respiratory events occurred at all stages of care, with 21.4% during preoperative transport and 75.5% postoperatively. Ninety-three percent of unplanned extubations occurred in patients 6 months and younger. Ten medication events were noted, 2 of which resulted in cardiac arrest. Root causes in all events related primarily to provider and patient factors, with occasional references to verbal miscommunication.

CONCLUSIONS

Five percent of reported pediatric anesthesia adverse events are associated with transport. Learning points highlight the risk of emergence from anesthesia during transport to recovery or intensive care unit (ICU). ICU patients undergoing anesthesia transport face risks relating to transitions in providers, equipment, sedation, and physical positioning. Sedation and neuromuscular blockade may be necessary for transport in some patients but has been associated with adverse events in others.

The challenge of safe anesthesia in developing countries: defining the problems in a medical center in Cambodia

Background

The International Standards for a Safe Practice of Anesthesia (ISSPA) were developed on behalf of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists and the World Health Organization. It has been recommend as an assessment tool that allows anesthetic providers in developing countries to assess their compliance and needs. This study was performed to describe the anesthesia service in one main public hospital during an 8-month medical mission in Cambodia and evaluate its anesthetic safety issues according to the ISSPA.

Methods

We conduct a retrospective study involving 1953 patients at the Preah Ket Mealea hospital. Patient demographics, anesthetic techniques, and complications were reviewed according to the registers of the anesthetic services and questionnaires. The inadequacies in personnel, facilities, equipment, medications, and conduct of anesthesia drugs were recorded using a checklist based on the ISSPA.

Results

A total of 1792 patients received general and regional anesthesia in the operating room, while 161 patients receiving sedation for gastroscopy. The patients’ mean age was 45.0 ± 16.6 years (range, 17–87 years). The three most common surgical procedures were abdominal (52.0%; confidence interval [CI], 49.3–54.7), orthopedic (27.6%; CI, 25.2–29.9), and urological surgery (14.7%; CI, 12.8–16.6). General anesthesia, spinal anesthesia, and brachial plexus block were performed in 54.3% (CI, 51.7–56.8), 28.2% (CI, 25.9–30.5), and 9.4% (CI, 7.9–10.9) of patients, respectively. One death occurred. Twenty-six items related to professional aspects, monitoring, and conduct of anesthesia did not meet the ISSPA-recommended standards. A lack of commonly used drugs and monitoring equipment was noted, posing major threats to the safety of anesthesia practice, especially in emergency situations.

Conclusions

This study adds to the scarce literature on anesthesia practice in low- and middle-income countries such as Cambodia. Future medical assistance should help to strengthen these countries’ inadequacies, allowing for the adoption of international standards for the safe practice of anesthesia.

Prospective External Validation of the Pediatric Risk Assessment Score in Predicting Perioperative Mortality in Children Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery

BACKGROUND

Early identification of children at high risk for perioperative mortality could lead to improved outcomes; however, there is a lack of well-validated risk prediction tools. The Pediatric Risk Assessment (PRAm) score is a new model to prognosticate perioperative risk of mortality in pediatric patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. It was derived from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) Pediatric database. In this study, we aimed to externally validate the PRAm score at 1 large institution.

METHODS

A PRAm score was prospectively assigned by the primary anesthesia team to children ≤18 years of age undergoing noncardiac surgery between July 2017 and July 2018 at a tertiary care pediatric hospital. The primary outcome was the PRAm score's ability to predict 30-day mortality. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was utilized to determine discriminative ability. Sensitivity and specificity at varying cutoffs were considered. Youden J index and the gray zone approach were applied to determine the optimal PRAm cutoff for predicting 30-day mortality.

RESULTS

Among the 13,530 cases included in the external validation cohort, the incidence of 30-day mortality was 0.21% (29/13,530). The PRAm score was found to predict 30-day mortality with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.956 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.938-0.974; P < .001). Youden J index determined the optimal PRAm score threshold to be ≥5 with a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 91%. The gray zone identified an inconclusive risk of mortality in 6.93% (938/13,530) of patients who had PRAm scores of 4 or 5 (sensitivity or specificity <90%, respectively), therefore refining the optimal cutoff point to be a PRAm score of ≥6. The incidence of mortality for patients with an American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status (ASA PS) ≤3 (0.06%, 8/13,530) increased 8-fold for those with an ASA PS of ≤3 and a PRAm score of ≥6.

CONCLUSIONS

The PRAm score is a simple and objective tool that has excellent ability to predict perioperative risk of mortality in pediatric patients undergoing noncardiac surgery and can be easily used by clinicians. The application of the PRAm score could have important implications on the safety and quality of care delivered to infants and children and on the resource utilization in the pediatric health care system.

«Safety First»: Design of an anesthetic checklist in pediatrics

INTRODUCTION

Quality improvement in health care entails the design of reliable processes which prevent and mitigate medical errors. Checklists are cognitive tools which reduce such errors. The primary objective of this study was to design an anesthetic checklist in Pediatrics to be implemented in our hospital.

METHODS

Delphi technique was used, with 3 rounds of questionnaire surveys: a generic questionnaire to obtain dimensions and items; and 2 specific ones to score individual items and obtain an overall rating for the checklist (median), and to measure the level of consensus (relative interquartile range) and internal reliability (Wilcoxon signed-rank test).

RESULTS

Final version of the checklist obtained a high overall score (Med 9) with a very high consensus (RIR 5%). Internal consensus was reached on all items (RIR ≤ 30%). Wilcoxon signed-rank test found no statistically significant differences, demonstrating reliability or consistency of responses between consecutive rounds.

CONCLUSION

The Anesthetic checklist in Pediatrics has been methodically designed for implementation and use in our hospital.

One Laryngospasm, 2 Realities: A Case Report Highlighting the Impact of Data Granularity on Post Hoc Analysis of Perioperative Events

We present the case of a laryngospasm event in a 21-month-old child in which the changes in pulse oximetry and end-tidal carbon dioxide were recorded by both our Anesthesia Information Management System and middleware medical device integration platform. When this case was analyzed retrospectively, we noted that the 2 systems recorded the event very differently with respect to pulse oximetry. This case report illustrates the impact of data sampling rates on post hoc analysis of perioperative events and highlights the importance of understanding data collection processes when using electronically recorded data.

Incidence of severe critical events in paediatric anaesthesia in Scandinavia: Secondary analysis of Anaesthesia PRactice In Children Observational Trial (APRICOT)

BACKGROUND

The Anaesthesia PRactice In Children Observational Trial (APRICOT) in 261 European hospitals revealed a 5.2% incidence of severe critical events in the perioperative period and wide variability in practice.

METHODS

A sub-analysis of the Scandinavian data was undertaken to investigate differences from the rest of Europe in the incidence and nature of perioperative severe critical events and to attempt to identify areas for quality improvement.

FINDINGS

In the Scandinavian cohorts of 1520 paediatric patients out of 31 127 patients, the overall incidence of perioperative severe critical events was lower than the rest of Europe (4.4% (95% CI [3.5-5.6]) vs 5.2% (95% CI [5.0-5.5]); RR 0.57), albeit the incidence varied across countries. There was a lower rate of bronchospasm (0.9%), stridor (1.1%) and cardiovascular instability (0.9%) than the rest of Europe. The proportion of bronchospasm events occurring at induction was 0.13% in Scandinavian cohort which was less than the rest of Europe (1.2%). The proportion of sicker patients where less experienced teams were managing the care was notably lower in Scandinavia than in the rest of Europe (14.4% vs 20.4% of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status Classification System Score (ASA-PS III and 8.3% vs 12.8% of the ASA-PS IV. Cardiovascular instability was lower in Scandinavia (0.92%) compared to Europe (1.9%). The incidence of drug errors was low in both the overall APRICOT (0.2%) and in Scandinavia (0.3%). There were no deaths.

INTERPRETATION

This sub-analysis shows that current Scandinavia paediatric perioperative clinical practice compares favourably with the rest of Europe. The lower incidence of cardiovascular and respiratory complications could be partly attributed to more experienced dedicated paediatric anaesthesia providers managing the higher risk groups of patients in Scandinavia. Whether this cohort of anaesthetized children is truly representative of the entire Scandinavia countries is unknown. Areas for quality improvement include: standardisation of the definition of severe critical events, increased reporting, development of evidence-based protocols for the management of severe critical events, development and rational implementation of paediatric perioperative risk assessment scores, implementation of current best practice in the provision of competent paediatric anaesthesia service in Europe, development of specific training and ensuring maintenance skills in paediatric anaesthesia. Furthermore, based on data from the original Apricot paper children under the age of 3 years and ASA-PS III and IV patients should not be anaesthetised without direct supervision of a specialist in paediatric anaesthesia. Given the sample size of the Scandinavian cohort this conclusion cannot be investigated further.

Adverse events in radiation oncology: A case series from wake up safe, the pediatric anesthesia quality improvement initiative

BACKGROUND

Radiation therapy in pediatric patients often requires anesthesia and poses environmental challenges. Monitoring must be done remotely to limit radiation exposure to the provider. Airway access can be limited by masks or frames. Care is often delivered in relatively inaccessible locations in the hospital. While individual institutions have reported their outcomes, this case series aims to review a multicenter registry of significant adverse events and make recommendations for improved care.

METHODS

Wake Up Safe: The Pediatric Quality Improvement Initiative maintains a multisite, voluntary registry of pediatric perianesthetic significant adverse events. This was queried for reports from radiation oncology from January 1, 2010 to May 10, 2018. The database contained 3,379 significant adverse events from approximately 3.3 million anesthetics. All 33 institutions submitted data on a standardized form to a central data repository (Axio Research, Seattle Washington). Prior to each significant adverse events case submission, three anesthesiologists who were not involved in the event analyzed the event using a standardized root cause analysis method to identify the causal or contributing factor(s).

RESULTS

Six significant adverse events were identified. In three, incorrect programming of a propofol infusion resulted in overdose. In case one, the 3-year-old female became hypotensive, requiring vasopressors and volume resuscitation. In the second, the 2-year-old female experienced airway obstruction and apnea requiring chin lift. In case three, the child suffered no consequences despite a noted overdose of propofol infusion. In case four, a 2-year-old female with recent respiratory infection suffered laryngospasm during an unmonitored transport to the recovery area. She developed profound oxygen desaturation with bradycardia treated with succinylcholine and chest compressions. In case five, a 6-year-old former premature child suffered laryngospasm at the conclusion of mask creation under general anesthesia with a laryngeal mask airway. The radiation mask delayed recognition of copious secretions. Finally, in case six, a 6-year-old undergoing stereotactic radiosurgery in a head halo suffered bronchospasm and unintended extubation during therapy which required multiple attempts at reintubation by multiple providers ultimately requiring cancellation of the treatment and transport to the intensive care unit.

CONCLUSION

There were few radiation oncology significant adverse events, but analysis has led to the identification of several specific opportunities for improvement in pediatric anesthesia for radiation oncology.

Incidence of severe critical events in paediatric anaesthesia in the United Kingdom: secondary analysis of the anaesthesia practice in children observational trial (APRICOT study)

The anaesthesia practice in children observational trial of 31,127 patients in 261 European hospitals revealed a high (5.2%) incidence of severe critical events in the peri-operative period and wide variability in practice. A sub-analysis of the UK data was undertaken to investigate differences compared with the non-UK cohort in the incidence and nature of peri-operative severe critical events and to attempt to identify areas for quality improvement. In the UK cohort of 7040 paediatric patients from 43 hospitals, the overall incidence of peri-operative severe critical events was lower than in the non-UK cohort (3.3%, 95%CI: 2.9-3.8 vs. 5.8%, 95%CI: 5.5-6.1, RR 0.57, p < 0.001). There was a lower rate of bronchospasm (RR 0.22, 95%CI: 0.14-0.33; p < 0.001), stridor (RR 0.42, 95%CI: 0.28-0.65; p < 0.001) and cardiovascular instability (RR 0.69, 95%CI: 0.55-0.86; p = 0.001) than in the non-UK cohort. The proportion of sicker patients where less experienced teams were managing care was lower in the UK than in the non-UK cohort (10.4% vs. 20.4% of the ASA physical status 3 and 9% vs. 12.9% of the ASA physical status 4 patients). Differences in work-load between centres did not affect the incidence and outcomes of severe critical events when stratified for age and ASA physical status. The lower incidence of cardiovascular and respiratory complications could be partly attributed to more experienced dedicated paediatric anaesthesia providers managing the higher risk patients in the UK. Areas for quality improvement include: standardisation of serious critical event definitions; increased reporting; development of evidence-based protocols for management of serious critical events; development and rational use of paediatric peri-operative risk assessment scores; implementation of current best practice in provision of competent paediatric anaesthesia services in Europe; development of specific training in the management of severe peri-operative critical events; and implementation of systems for ensuring maintenance of skills.

The Psychiatry Morbidity and Mortality Incident Reporting Tool Increases Psychiatrist Participation in Reporting Adverse Events

OBJECTIVES

Although the reporting of adverse events (AEs) is widely thought to be a key first step to improving patient safety in hospital systems, underreporting remains a common problem, particularly among physicians. We aimed to increase the number of safety reports filed by psychiatrists in our hospital system.

METHODS

We piloted an online survey for psychiatry-specific AE reporting, the Psychiatry Morbidity and Mortality Incident Reporting Tool (PMIRT) for a 1-year period. An e-mail prompt containing a link to the survey was sent on a weekly basis to all psychiatry department clinical staff. The primary outcome was the total number of events reported by psychiatrists through PMIRT; secondary outcomes were the total number of AEs and the number of serious harm events filed by psychiatrists in our hospital's formal event reporting system before and after implementation of the new protocol.

RESULTS

Psychiatrists filed 65 reports in PMIRT during the study period. The average number of AEs reported by psychiatrists in the hospital's formal event reporting system significantly increased after the intervention (P = 0.0251), and the average number of serious harm events reported by psychiatrists increased nonsignificantly (P = 0.1394).

CONCLUSIONS

The combination of an increase in awareness of event reporting with a psychiatry-specific AE reporting tool resulted in a significant improvement in the number of reports by psychiatrists.

Measuring Quality for Individual Anesthesia Clinicians

A robust quality management system (QMS) will provide value to patients, providers, and hospitals or systems by focusing on system performance. The QMS must remain independent of provider-specific measures used for privileging. Some outcome measures may be used to assess system performance; they must not be used to assess individual provider performance. All anesthesia providers, especially leaders, must be guardians of an organization's safety culture.