Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2019
Emergency Manual Implementation in a Large Academic Anesthesia Practice: Strategy and Improvement in Performance on Critical Steps.
The use of cognitive aids, such as emergency manuals (EMs), improves team performance on critical steps during crisis events. In our large academic anesthesia practice, we sought to broadly implement an EM and subsequently evaluate team member performance on critical steps. ⋯ Implementation of an EM in a large academic anesthesia practice is not without challenges. While full integration of the EM was not achieved 6 months after implementation, verbalization of critical steps on 3 simulated crisis events improved when the EM was utilized.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 2019
Anticipated Rates and Costs of Guideline-Concordant Preoperative Stress Testing.
Current guidelines recommend that patients have preoperative assessment of cardiac risk and functional status, and that patients at "elevated" cardiac risk with poor or unknown functional status be referred for preoperative stress testing. Little is known about current rates of testing or resultant medical costs. We set out to estimate the expected rates of preoperative stress testing and resultant costs if physicians in the United States were to follow current guidelines and to investigate differences that would arise from 2 risk prediction methods included in current guidelines. ⋯ Preoperative stress testing is likely a considerable source of medical spending, despite unproven benefit. Which perioperative risk assessment tool clinicians should use, what risk thresholds are appropriate for patient selection, and the reliability of the functional status assessment all warrant further attention.