March 2001

From the Literature: Safety Overview Proceedings Published

March 10, 2001

Vincent C and deMol B (eds.) Safety in Medicine. Pergamon Press. 2000. ISBN 0-08045-6560 Patient safety is complicated. To make changes, a complex system must be altered through complex methods....

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Extending Patient Safety Beyond the OR and PACU

March 10, 2001

Anesthesiologists continue to improve patient safety beyond the doors of the operating rooms and post-anesthesia care units. A team at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, led by anesthesiologist-intensivist, Michael...

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Production Pressure: A Physician Administrator’s View

March 10, 2001

The Balanced Budget Act (BBA) has had tremendous impact on the nation’s hospitals. The effect of removing billions of dollars from an industry raised on steady revenue increases was repeatedly...

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Patient Safety and Production Pressure: Industry’s Perspective

March 10, 2001

"It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared." Leaders of major medical corporations face unprecedented demands...

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Patient Safety and Production Pressure: ICU Nursing Perspective

March 10, 2001

The intensive care unit (ICU) is a nursing unit involving patients with life-threatening multi-organ failure, sophisticated, invasive monitoring devices, frequent administration of cardiac and vasoactive medications, and a highly-charged, stressful...

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Patient Safety and Production Pressure: Intensive Care Unit

March 10, 2001

“We have embraced cost containment as a core value” (Hospital CEO, 1994). Because intensive care is expensive care, the ICU is a frequent target for aggressive cost-cutting programs. Hospitals, embracing...

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Patient Safety and Production Pressure: Scheduling and Staff

March 10, 2001

Production pressure poses a threat to safety, whether it be worker safety in the factory, passenger and crew safety during airplane flight, or patient safety in the operating room.1,2 The...

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Patient Safety and Production Pressure: Pre-Op Assessment

March 10, 2001

The past 15 years have witnessed a tremendous growth in outpatient and same-day-admit surgery. Relatively few patients are admitted to the hospital prior to the day of elective surgery. We...

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Patient Safety and Production Pressure: Private Practice

March 10, 2001

You are running late, the surgeon is waiting impatiently; the patient is also waiting in the preoperative holding area. Can this scenario provide an opportunity for erosion of patient safety?...

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Patient Safety and Production Pressure: Academic Practice

March 10, 2001

Moving patients through their operating room experience as fast as possible with the least possible cost has always been more difficult in a teaching hospital than in a private practice...

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APSF Adds New Personnel

March 10, 2001

Ms. Lori Cross, Vice President and General Manager, Anesthesia Delivery & Ventilation, Datex-Ohmeda, joined the APSF Executive Committee at the APSF Annual Meeting in October. We welcome her as an...

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APSF Seeks Research Grant Applications

March 10, 2001

The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation announces the deadline of June 18, 2001, for receipt of applications for research grants to start January 1, 2002. Note: grants are limited to the...

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Patient Safety and Production Pressure: A Victim’s Perspective

March 10, 2001

Many physicians and patients believe that the quality of medical care has declined. We have no "scientific data" to verify this perception. Physicians appear to work longer hours, yet seem...

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APSF Announcement to CRNA’s

March 10, 2001

The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation regrets to announce that the APSF Newsletter will no longer be mailed to Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs). For the past 15 years, the APSF...

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Medication Shortage Safety Reports Sought by APSF

March 10, 2001

Potential adverse patient safety implications of the recent shortage of common anesthetic medications have been widely discusses but not documented. General discussions during breaks and meals at various meetings and...

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Special Issue: Production Pressure – Does the Pressure to Do More, Faster, with Less, Endanger Patients? Potential Risks to Patient Safety Examined by APSF Panel

March 10, 2001

Related Article: Production Pressure and Anesthesia Professionals Introduction In November 1999 and March 2001, reports from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) heightened the public’s consciousness regarding the safety of hospitalized...

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December 2000

APSF Booth at ASA Meeting Spreads Patient Safety Message

December 10, 2000

Dr. Joan Christie (center) organized the APSF booth and distributed copies of the APSF Newsletter and other patient safety information to booth visitors.

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Patients Perceived Still at Risk with PCA Pumps

December 10, 2000

In My Opinion (Re-rebuttal) I write to respond to two critiques of an article I wrote in the last APSF Newsletter, warning practitioners about the patient deaths that have occurred...

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Call GA What It Is, Not Just “A Little Sedation”

December 10, 2000

To the Editor I would like to respond to Dr. Balaklaw’s letter about “a little sedation.” I certainly agree that the term is misleading and is in fact often referring...

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Is the U.S. Behind the U.K. (Again) on Office-Based Anesthesia?

December 10, 2000

To the Editor It was not until 1999 that the UK government took the decision to ban general anaesthesia in the dental surgery. It seems ironic that it took UK...

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