Improving agreement of ASA physical status class between pre-anesthesia screening and day of surgery by adding institutional-specific and ASA-approved examples: a quality improvement project.

Background: A successful anesthesia pre-assessment clinic needs to identify patients who need further testing, evaluation, and optimization prior to the day of surgery to avoid delays and cancelations. Although the ASA Physical Status Classification system (ASA PS) has been used widely for over 50 years, it has poor interrater agreement when only using the definitions. In 2014, ASA-approved examples for each ASA physical status class (ASA PS).

Adding Examples to the ASA-Physical Status Classification Improves Correct Assignment to Patients.

Background: Despite its widespread use, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA)-Physical Status Classification System has been shown to result in inconsistent assignments among anesthesiologists. The ASA-Physical Status Classification System is also used by nonanesthesia-trained clinicians and others. In 2014, the ASA developed and approved examples to assist clinicians in determining the correct ASA-Physical Status Classification System assignment.