Anesthesia Patient Safety Editorial Board (APSEB) – ASA Continues to Take the Lead in Patient Safety

Author: Tetsu (Butch) Uejima, M.D., MMM, FAAP, CPHRM

ASA Monitor 03 2017, Vol.81, 22-23.

Tetsu (Butch) Uejima ,M.D., MMM, FAAP, CPHRM, is Chairman, Department of Pediatric Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Nemours/AI duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, Delaware, and Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia.

In 2007, the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) refined the CME requirements for Maintenance of Certification (MOC) and required that 20 CME hours must be patient safety-focused educational hours. ASA responded to this new requirement and created the Anesthesia Patient Safety Editorial Board (APSEB), charging the board with producing and promoting patient safety material for our members and ABA diplomates. David Martin, M.D., was named editor-in-chief and served in that capacity until last year when he stepped down to meet term limit stipulations within the ASA bylaws and also to assume the role of Section on Education and Research chair. Under Dr. Martin’s leadership, the ASA Education Center currently hosts more than 40 patient safety modules covering a wide range of topics, all of which are conveniently available online and help fulfill patient safety CME requirement for Part 2 of the ABA MOCA®. In 2016, physicians and anesthesiologist assistants claimed more than 16,000 patient safety CME credit hours. The modules are reviewed on a regular cycle, and new material is added annually from a variety of sources.

Patient Safety Modules

The Fundamentals of Patient Safety module was one of the original patient modules created by the APSEB. It underwent an exhaustive revision in 2015-16. This 10-hour CME module is now on a new multimedia, integrated platform and is completely self-paced. It is divided into five sections that cover a wide gamut of basic patient safety science topics:

■ Epidemiology

■ Safety Culture

■ Systems Approach 1 and 2

■ Communications Parts 1 and 2

■ Error Analysis and Prevention

The APSEB urges all readers to take advantage of a free patient safety module titled “Gaining Insight into the Mechanisms of Action Associated with the Reversal of Neuromuscular Blockade.” The program was funded by an educational grant from Pfizer and is designated for a maximum of 3 PS-MOC CME.

ASA Patient Safety Education at the Annual Meeting

Each year prior to the annual meeting, the APSEB requests the track chairs to identify sessions that will contain significant patient safety material. These sessions are then designated as being eligible for MOC-PS credit. ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2016, 40 sessions carried such designation. Several of these sessions are recorded and reviewed by the APSEB to determine the highest-quality content to release as enduring highlights material. The 2016 Patient Safety Highlights feature 13 sessions to include “Controversies and Best Practices in Central Line Insertion” (Avery Tung, M.D., FCCM) and “Distracted Doctoring in the Operating Room: Absence of Evidence Is Not Evidence of Absence” (Kirk Lalwani, B.S., M.B., FRCA, Matthew Weinger, M.D., M.S., and Kenneth Abbey, M.D., J.D.) All offerings are worth up to 14 MOC-PS credit.

New Endeavors

The APSEB has formed a partnership with the Anesthesia Incident Reporting System (AIRS) of the Anesthesia Quality Institute (AQI). AIRS is an event reporting database that allows anesthesia practitioners to report adverse events to the AQI database. Each month, the AIRS committee publishes a case report in the ASA Monitor taken directly from the AIRS database with an accompanying discussion of the safety issues along with a short list of references. The APSEB plans to use prior AIRS reports as the foundation for future safety modules. APSEB strongly encourages all readers to submit cases to the AIRS database as it serves as vibrant and robust fodder for patient safety material and education.

A large number of medical specialty boards have recognized ASA as a leader in patient safety and, as such, have accredited many of our modules as material that qualifies for their respective MOC requirements on patient safety. Among the boards that currently allow this are the boards of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Ophthalmology, Thoracic Surgery and Urology.

ASA’s Fundamentals of Patient Safety module is currently being translated into Spanish. The translated course will be made available to more than 500 anesthesiologists practicing in Spain. This will be the APSEB’s first foray into the international anesthesia community. The board will have access to the translated version and hopes this will lead to further expansion of patient safety educational material into other Spanish-speaking anesthesia communities in South America and Central America.

The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) has designated the week of March 12 this year as the national Patient Safety Awareness Week. As ASA members in a specialty recognized as a leader in patient safety, it is an opportunity for all of us to see how far the patient safety movement has progressed and to continue to strive toward creating a culture and environment of safety not only for patients under our care but across all specialties. Browse all ASA Patient Safety offerings at www.asahq.org/shop-asa and visit NPSF for additional resources at www.npsf.org.

Current APSEB Board Members

■ Jane Easdown, M.D., FRCPC (Vanderbilt)

■ Markus Klass M.D., Ph.D. (Emory)

■ Michael Loushin, M.D. (private practice)

■ David Martin, M.D., Ph.D. (Mayo), Outgoing editor-in-chief

■ Keith Ruskin, M.D. (University of Chicago)

■ Deborah Schwengel, M.D., M.Ed. (Johns Hopkins)

■ Butch Uejima M.D., MMM (Nemours/AI DuPont), Editor-in-chief

Dr. Richard Prielipp (University of Minnesota) stepped off the board in October due to term limit provisions in the ASA bylaws. Dr. Prielipp, along with Drs. Martin and Uejima, were original members of the APSEB and instrumental in the development of many of the modules currently offered by ASA. The APSEB would like to recognize Dr. Prielipp for his years of service and contributions to the board. In addition, Lorri Lee, M.D., stepped off of the board this year. Dr. Klass will also be stepping down in October due to term limit provisions. The board is currently in the process of evaluating candidates to fill Dr. Klass’ seat on the board.

The APSEB would also like to recognize critical members of the ASA staff who work tirelessly behind the scenes. ASA E-Learning Instructional Designer Joe Barnett’s expertise in newer educational platforms was critical to thesuccess of two grant-funded patient safety programs. ASA Senior Learning Technology and Production Manager Gerry Higgins continues to provide day-to-day administrative over-sight under ASA Education Director Elizabeth Lepkowski. The APSEB will continue to strive to provide high-quality patient safety MOC material for ASA membership and maintain our role as leaders in patient safety. We always welcome suggestions and your thoughts on how we can better serve every ASA member.