Episode #66 Bonus Episode: Patient Safety at Anesthesiology 2021

Hello and welcome back to the Anesthesia Patient Safety Podcast.  My name is Alli Bechtel and I am your host. Thank you for joining us for another show and this is a special bonus episode! Today is the first day of Anesthesiology 2021 in San Diego. Are you attending live or virtually? You might be on your way there now! If you are, we want to make sure that you know all about the patient safety sessions and educational offerings and ways to contribute!

Patient safety at Anesthesiology 2021 kicks off with two featured APSF Events.

First is the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation Panel with the title Clinician Safety: To Care is Human. If you listened to Episode #65 already, then you have a sneak peek at this topic because this was also the theme for the 2021 APSF Stoelting Conference. We hope to see you at this panel on Saturday October 9^th at 1:15pm. The moderator for this session is Matthew Weinger and he will also be talking about Perioperative Clinician Wellbeing: Why is this a Patient Safety Issue? Other speakers on this panel include Della Lin to talk about Incivility, Rudeness, and Violence in the Perioperative Work Environment and Catherine Kuhn who will talk about Perioperative Clinicians’ Mental Health – Mediating Factors and Outcomes. To round out the panel, Amy Vinson will discuss Strategies for Improving Perioperative Clinician Wellbeing and Addressing Burnout. This panel is a powerhouse of speakers and topics that you do not want to miss!!

Next up is the ASA/APSF Ellison C. Pierce Jr MD Patient Safety Memorial Lecture which will be given by Angela Enright on Saturday October 9^th at 2:30pm. The title of this lecture is Anesthesia Safety in an Asymmetrical World. We hope to see you there.

When you are at these sessions, we want to hear from you! Please share your thoughts and takeaways and highlights from the featured APSF events on twitter and tag us at @APSForg and use the hashtag #ANES21 and if you are listening to the podcast, let us know by using the hash tag #APSFpodcast.

There is even more good news about anesthesia patient safety offerings at Anesthesiology 2021 because there is so much more to learn about, see, and explore. We compiled a list of Patient Safety Sessions. These sessions contribute to the patient safety CME requirement for the CME component of the American Board of Anesthesiology MOCA program. Head over to APSF.org and click on the Conferences and Events heading. First one down is Upcoming Events Featuring APSF. Then, click on Anesthesiology 2021 and scroll down until you see the ASA 2021 Patient Safety Sessions. I will include a link in the show notes as well. Then, you can click on each day of the conference so that you can plan your day around these patient safety sessions. Plus, you can see the APSF Patient Safety Priorities that are linked to each session.

Here are just a few of the titles of talks and sessions to help you get excited to learn all about the latest in perioperative patient safety. You can check out the self-directed learning session today, Friday, October 8^th called, “What the COVID Pandemic Can Teach Us About Perioperative Safety.”  On Saturday morning, grab your coffee and get out the door early to check out “Postpartum Hemorrhage: How to Prepare for It, How to Prevent It, and What to Do When Blood is Pooling on the Floor” at 7:45AM which is related to the Patient Safety Priority Clinical Deterioration or maybe we will see you at the Snap Talk at the same time called, “Tackling the Top Patient Safety Problems in Your Practice: Recommendations From the ASA Patient Safety Editorial Board.”

Do you practice ambulatory anesthesia and have questions about keeping patients safe during outpatient procedures? Then, check out the refresher course lecture at 10:15am called, “ Which Patients Are Too High-Risk for Ambulatory Surgery?” to help answer some vital questions.

The third day of the conference brings more great patient safety content from “Understanding Medical Accidents” on Sunday, October 10^th at 7:30am to learning about “Reducing the Risk of Infectious and Hemorrhagic Complications of Regional Anesthesia at 8:45am. After grabbing some coffee and a quick lunch, you might be ready for some of the Sunday afternoon sessions which include an interactive tutorial at 1:15pm called “Managing Conflict in the Anesthesia Workplace: Improving Patient Safety With Insight, Communication, and Leadership” or the “ASRA Practice Advisories: Review and Update” 60 minute Panel.

Do you practice anesthesia in non-operating room locations? There are some sessions related to patient safety in these locations as well on Sunday afternoon including, “The Next Endoscopy Patient Has WHAT?! Safely Navigating Severe Comorbid Conditions in the Endoscopy Suite” at 1:15pm or “My Patient is Too Sick for Surgery, But Not For NORA? Confronting Challenges To Patient Safety Outside of the OR” at 2:30pm or “Nonoperating Room Anesthesia: Safely Managing Challenging Cases in the Most Challenging Environments” at 3:45pm.

Are you a kid at heart or do you take care of pediatric patients? Then, we hope to see you at the Sunday afternoon session called, “Pediatric Sedation: Methods to Enhance Safety” at 2:45pm.

The forecast for Monday includes a 100% chance of learning more about keeping patients safe during anesthesia care. Which sessions will you attend? Will it be the 9:30am refresher course lecture on “Emergency Manuals in Clinical Uses: Impacts, Uptake, and Tips” or the 10am panel on “Current Controversies in Airway Management” or the 1:45pm Snap Talk called, “Time is Brain: Mitigating Neurologic Emergencies in the Operating Room” or the 2:30pm Snap Talk related to a culture of safety called, “Do Perioperative Handoffs Really Cause Harm? If So, What Can We Do About It?”

The final day of the conference promises to close out with quality education sessions related to anesthesia patient safety. Some of these sessions include strategies for safe airway management including the 7:30am lecture on “Lung Isolation With a Difficult Airway” or the 7:30am Snap Talk called, “What’s New in Airway Management.” You may also want to check out the 8:45 am clinical forum called, “Is This Malignant Hyperthermia (MH)?” Then, it’s time for a quick coffee break before you head into the 10am clinical forum on “Enhancing Patient Safety During Periprocedural Neurologic Emergencies” followed quickly by the 12:15pm panel on “Challenges and Controversies in Trauma Management.” Time flies when you area learning about anesthesia patient safety so before you know it, it is Tuesday afternoon but you still have time to learn about “Less Jolts From Your Volts: Electrical Safety in the OR” and “Occupational Hazards for Anesthesiologists” at 12:15pm.

In between these sessions, we hope you will visit the APSF at the ASA Resource Center in the Exhibit Hall and stop by booth 2117.

In person and virtually, we invite you to join the #ASPFCrowd. With your signature, Fresenius Kabi will donate $15 to APSF. Fresenius Kabi is proud to support the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation in important initiatives to support the APSF vision that “no one shall be harmed by anesthesia care.” Your signature on the APSF signing wall in person or by participating virtually boosts global support and provides a crowdfunding contribution to APSF. Your action and a donation made on your behalf helps to provide for the following enduring programs, the APSF website with over 1 million visitors each year, safety research and education, the APSF Newsletter translations, and the APSF Consensus Conferences. Your signature can have a big impact! To sign the wall virtually, we invite you to tag #APSFCrowd and #fresneiuskabi on twitter and for every post with this tag, Fresenius Kabi will donate $15 to APSF on your behalf. Your tweet can help us reach our goal of $10,000. I will include a link in the show notes for more information!

Are you in the Giving Mood? Then, we invite you to try out the Dip Jar at the APSF booth. You can donate to the APSF by dipping your credit card in the jar. The donation amount will be displayed on the Dip Jar and you can support our vision that no one shall be harmed by anesthesia care.”  We can’t wait to meet you at booth 2117 at the ASA Annual Meeting in San Diego!

You might be on your way over to the booth now, so we are going to wrap up for today. If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected] and check out the show notes for links to everything we discussed today.

Until next time, stay vigilant so that no one shall be harmed by anesthesia care.

© 2021, The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation