Medication errors in anesthesia practice have long afflicted our specialty. This Panel will provide an updated overview of state of the art based on Panel?s original research in implementing medication safe anesthesia in a reliable manner. Reductions in medication errors in other patient care areas have occurred because error rates were systematically measured, errors were categorized to determine their root causes and potential for harm, and solutions were designed and implemented. Taking a fresh look at approaches to prevent Adverse medication events including tools we developed using a focused human factors approach over last 15 years, and based on our just released comprehensive literature review on medication safety. We will examine practical ways to make these tools more effective and improvement-focused. We will review best practices and case studies of delivering medication error free anesthesia and assess local vulnerabilities and system solutions.
The American Society of Anesthesiologists designates this enduring material for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Define the magnitude, impact and consequences of medication harm to patients and understand ways to mitigate this constant risk.
Describe how cognitive biases contribute to diagnostic and medication errors and discuss the epidemiology of medication error and cognitive drift and bias.
Review practical skills with a range of medication safety tools that you can use straightaway to drive safety, quality and operational improvement using learnings from applied human factors, checklists, process maps, run/control charts & RCA/ FMEA's.
Describe practical ways to overcome barriers to change and how best to engage anesthesiologists around medication safety.
Discuss and list best practice tools to measure process and outcomes success measures in getting to reliable and safe medication outcomes.