Wake Up Safe in the USA & International Patient Safety.

Patient safety is the most important aspect of anesthetic care. For both healthcare professionals and patients, the ideal would be no significant morbidity or mortality under anesthesia. Lessons from harm during healthcare can be shared to reduce harm and to increase safety.

Timely completion of spinal fusion: A multidisciplinary quality improvement initiative to improve operating room efficiency.

Background: Failure to complete surgery within the scheduled timeframe impairs operating room efficiency leading to patient dissatisfaction and unplanned labor costs. We sought to improve timely completion (within 30 min of scheduled time) of first-case spine fusion surgery (for idiopathic scoliosis) from a baseline of 25%-80% over 12 months. We also targeted timely completion of perioperative stages within predetermined target completion times.

A comparison of anesthetic protective barriers for the management of COVID-19 pediatric patients.

Background: Barrier techniques, such as plastic sheets or intubation boxes, are purported to offer additional protection for healthcare workers.

Aims: To assess the functionality, perceived safety, droplet protection, and aerosol protection of several barrier techniques.

Methods: Firstly, a simulation study with 12 different laryngoscopists was conducted to assess the time taken to perform an intubation (via direct laryngoscopy, via video laryngoscopy, and via a bougie) with four different barrier techniques (personal protective equipment only, a plastic sheet, a tented plastic sheet, and an intubation box).